To Define Evil
by Inarae
Summary: Post Meteor the new Shinra under Reeve is on the verge of being overthrown by the angry remmenants of the Shinra army, aided by the newest deadly creation of the Shinra science division, and Sephiroth's voice whispers once more in an ill Cloud's mind.
1. PROLOGUE

TO DEFINE EVIL

By Inarae

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

This story is part of a semi-challenge between Euclara and I.  Check out her version in "Bad Hair Day" and "Return to Sender" on fanfiction.net!!!  They're hilarious!  (And my b-day present!!)  Haven't you ever wanted to see Seph so mentally messed up he thinks he's Cloud and styles his hair blond and spiky?

SPOILER WARNING:  SPOILERS, SPOILERS, AND MORE SPOILERS.  I basically recap the entire game over the course of the story, even though it takes place afterward.  

TIMELINE:  All my FFVII stories interconnect, although you can read them in any order.  A time line would be:  'Entering the Turks', the game itself, 'To Define Evil', then 'Snow Queen'. 

RATING:  About PG-13 I imagine.  Not much objectionable stuff here, just some fighting.

By the way, C&C welcome and appreciated.  Please don't just say you hate it, but if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, I'd be delighted!  The more the merrier.  Thanks for reading.

Inarae

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PROLOGUE.

[January 7, two years after the planet's rescue from Meteor.]

            A low murmur filled the dark room just off the Shinra corporate headquarters, the tired, yearning sound of men and women trying to find pleasure or relaxation in alcohol and an old hangout, but somehow afraid that any noise or fun would tear apart the fragile bonds holding the city together.  It had been two years since it all happened, but people were still terrified.  

First the attacks on the huge energy plants that converted mako magic into electrical power; the saboteurs had claimed that the mako was what gave life to everyone on the planet, and that the plants were responsible for the huge drop in birth rate and agricultural productivity.  Then President Shinra's retaliation that destroyed a sixth of the city.  He didn't even get Avalanche, the saboteur group he had been aiming for.  No government dared object; the Shinra Corporation ran the entire planet.  But if it had just been that, people wouldn't still be in so much shock.  Wars, conflict, and death had been a part of human existence for as long as mankind had existed after all.

No, the terror was from what no one understood, even after so long.  All anyone knew was that Sephiroth, the Shinra army's most celebrated general, who had been declared dead ten years before, had apparently come back to life, gone insane, and slaughtered most of the Shinra leaders.  All they knew was that somehow both Sephiroth and Avalanche became inhumanly strong, breaking into impenetratable fortresses, winning fights against impossible odds.  Some people thought they must have been working together, but other the reports said they fought every time they met.  

And then a huge meteor began approaching the planet.  It was large enough to form a terrifying fiery ball in the sky for days, large enough that it would destroy all life upon impact.  As if to reiterate the fact that mankind had no chance of survival, the monsters arrived next.  Not the normal house sized dragons, the giant insects and the murderous machinery that had somehow acquired self-will.  These monsters, WEAPONS, they were called, stood as tall as Shinra headquarters, seventy stories up.  Everyone in Midgar had seen that comparison, knowing they were going to die as one of them attacked the city.  It had taken a blast from the Sister Ray, a cannon a quarter mile long to stop it.  Actually, there were some who said that even the cannon hadn't worked that well on its own; that President Shinra's son Rufus had to put mako crystal in the shells to make it effective.  But there had been only one cannon, and no time to make more.  No one knew exactly where the WEAPONS had come from; some said the planet had made them to protect itself from the mako plants.  Rufus died in the attack though, and under the chaotic guidance of his underlings, the city disintegrated into chaos.  There were riots and murders, people fleeing the city to the wilderness, people fleeing the towns to the city.  Most locked themselves up in their houses and just waited to die.  

Then it all stopped.  

Some people claimed they saw a bright white light envelope the meteor as it changed direction and retreated.  The WEAPONS never returned.  The ex-director of urban development, Reeve, took over Shinra and began building refugee camps, arranging for food and medical supplies to be sent in from other cities.  He also shut down the mako plants, sending the city into an energy crisis, but that was to be expected; everyone knew he worked for Avalanche.

Avalanche itself faded into the background, the members slipping out of the public eye.  No one heard from Sephiroth again; President Reeve said he was dead, but no one felt like believing Shinra, since everyone suspected it had been their fault everything had happened.  Their fault or Avalanche's.  Either way, it meant Reeve wasn't to be trusted.

And the city tried to heal.

The drunk man tottered into the bar, grinning like a madman.

            "I gat it!" He declared slurredly.  "Free drinks for everyone!"  He raised his glass in salute while the other patrons in the dark room just off the Shinra building snickered.

            "So what'd you get, Warren?"  Someone called out.

            "Finally get yourself a girl?"  Another voice asked.

            The drunk looked even prouder as he turned to face the hecklers, straightening his beer stained lab jacket.  

            "Don't try to bring me down to your level, Matthew," he sneered, and then fell against the counter as he tried to puff out his chest.  "I'm s'far above you, y'can't even touch me."  He waved his arms in obscure elaboration.  "I've d'c'vered an energy to replace Mako!"

            Most of the listeners snorted and turned away, having heard similar statements thousands of times from Shinra scientists over the years.  But many felt the flame of hope flicker weakly to life.  Without the Mako generators, the cold of winter had brought suffering and death to many.  Slowly the room fell silent as they shushed their neighbors.

            Warren Nibro grinned and stuck out his chest like a turkey, this time holding onto a chair for balance.  

"I've done it, and it's SIMPLE!  Can't think why not dis'c'vered before.  Right there before us.  Could power an entire city or flatten it to rubble in a second," he mused, blinking as if he just realized that.  It seemed to bother him for a second, but then he grinned and forgot about it.  "Just a few grams needed to start and. . .Boom!  A glass full could power the world!"  

He roared the last with glee.

            Everyone groaned and went back to their previous conversations.  Nibro didn't notice.  "It's not finished of course, but the math seems right.  I ought to be able to start building by the end of the year. . ."  He adjusted his glasses and grinned happily out at the world.  A cold hand closed over his own, making him jump.

            "What an elegant concept Professor.  Let me buy you a drink in celebration.  Why don't you tell me more."

Midgar Times, Nov. 23

A scientist named Warren Nibro was shot in front of his 

home yesterday morning.  Police have few clues at the 

moment, but are tentatively blaming local gang activity, 

possibly related to an attempted robbery.

***********************************************************

            Yeah!  Sephiroth will finally show up next chapter.  Yes, this is a 'let's reincarnate Sephiroth because he's just too cool a character to leave dead' fic.  My apologies to the cannon continuity. 

Inarae

December 2000

ginabrae@aol.com 

FYI

Reposted June 2003.  I took this down after Sept. 11th as I wasn't interested in working on it anymore.  However, it seemed silly to have a couple hundred pages sitting on my hard drive where no one but me could see it, so I put it back up, and decided to work on it some more.  Over the past few years my writing has improved, and I'm less than impressed with this as is.  However, I like the plot here, so I'm planning on finishing it, and then using it as an outline to rewrite in a style more like my newer works.  


	2. CH 1: WHAT'S GOING ON?

TO DEFINE EVIL

Chapter One

By Inarae

DISCLAIMER:  All things having to do with Final Fantasy belong to Square, who I am eternally grateful to for having made it!

Comments and criticism greatly appreciated!  They will make me a happy writer who will write more, especially if you point out things I should work on improving in my next chapter or story.

*************************************************************

CHAPTER ONE:  WHAT'S GOING ON?

Cloud woke up to find Tifa gazing worriedly down at him.  He reached up to touch her tanned cheek, smiling tiredly at the petite warrior girl.

"Hi there beautiful."  For some reason his voice was rough and it hurt to talk.  She bit her lip and clasped his hand to her face, bowing her head so brown hair cascaded over her face and he couldn't see her expression.  Worried, he looked around.

"Tifa?  What am I doing in bed at noon?"  She blinked and sat up straighter, releasing his hand.  "Tifa?"

"You collapsed again at dinner last night."

"Oh." _Dang. Again?  Shit, I wish I didn't keep worrying her like this_.  He carefully swung his legs out of the bed.  _A little sore, but not bad.  "Listen, you must be tired if you stayed up all night taking care of me.  Here, lay down, I'll take care of stuff today and you can rest."_

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"If I've been asleep all day, and you've been taking care of me, you probably haven't been out to the bar.  We've got a shipment coming in today, remember?"  He replied logically, running a sword-calloused hand through the impossibly unruly spikes of his blond hair.

Tifa's face paled and then burned an angry, almost purplish red.  Her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed.  Oops, he'd said something wrong.  All right, she didn't like that idea.  It was really quite fascinating what moving a few muscles could do to the shape of a face though.  He smiled innocently up at her and waited for her to start 

yelling.  Her face dropped and she turned away.

"Tifa?"

"You weren't unconscious, at least not entirely."

He was shocked to see that there was moisture in her eyes when she turned around.  

"You screamed when you collapsed."  Her voice was soft and tight, like she was talking to herself.  "Then you were shaking uncontrollably like you were freezing, but it was a fever. And you moaned in pain.  I thought. . . somehow you sounded like you had given up hope, that you were just waiting to die.  You were like that till an hour ago  and then you screamed again, convulsed, and slept like a log for the last seven hours."  She turned back to him.  "And now you want to go prancing around again like nothing's wrong?!"  

          "Tifa, I . . . I don't remember it.  As far as I'm concerned, it didn't happen.  I'm sorry to worry you so much.   It seems like I'm worrying you a lot lately.  Maybe, . . . maybe I could go stay with Vincent for a while?  Or you could?  Take a vacation. . ."

          "That's not the problem!  The problem is you!  What's wrong with you?  You've lost weight, you're not sleeping, it seems like you've had the flu all year, and now this again.  Cloud, you need to see a doctor!"

          "No."

          "Cloud. . ."

          "Tifa, my body's so messed up there's nothing any doctor could do without a ton of research, and I won't be a test subject again.  And I won't let any of the information on how Hojo did this to me fall into anyone else's hands either.  It'd be too easy for someone to decide to create their own private army of supermen and end up with a bunch of madmen like Sephiroth instead.  It's only happened, what, three times now?  At pretty big intervals.  For all we know, they'll just go away."

 "For all we know, they might come more often.  The first two were nine months apart.  It's only been a month and a half since then, and you've had another one."  Tifa said quietly.

          "If that happens, it happens.  To be honest Tifa, having you this upset bothers me a lot more than the illness."

          "Illness?"  Her voice was flat.

 "Or whatever.  Maybe this is kind of a delayed reaction to Jenova's death or a side effect from all the weird stuff and mako pumped into me.  If this is the last surprise from Hojo, I'm happy with it.  Just don't worry, it'll be fine."

"You're in pain!  You were lying there clutching your head, and moaning. . ."

          "I don't remember it, so I can pretend it didn't happen.  All I feel is a little bit sore.  I'm sorry to worry you so much though."  He took her fisted hands from her waist and cupped them gently in his own.  "It's pretty much a given that there's nothing we can do about them.  I'll be OK."

          "And if you're not?"

          "Then I'll still be OK.  Tifa, stop looking for worst-case scenarios.  Maybe this is the last of the  Jenova cells Hojo injected me with dying out, and I'll be a normal human again soon. That'd be logical, right?  Jenova's dead, and humans aren't supposed to have pieces of a creature from another planet living inside of them."  He smiled at her tight face. "There's no reason to assume the worst."  After a few seconds she managed a small grin in return.  As grins go, it wasn't much, but it seemed to make Cloud happy.  His body relaxed in relief, inclining him slightly towards Tifa, who slumped against his muscled chest and hid her wet face in his shirt.

          The PHS beeped.  Both of them jumped, and blushed.

          "Ah. . ."  Cloud began to look around frantically, still blushing.  "Where is that damned thing?"

          Tifa blinked at him.  "Huh?  Oh, the PHS. . .  I think I saw it in the refrigerator."

          "The refrigerator?!"  Cloud stopped looking through a pile of junk on the dining room table to stare at her in disbelief.

          "My purse got a hole while I was shopping, so I put everything important in the grocery bags. . .  then something came up right as I got home, and I just stuffed everything in the fridge before going out again."

          Cloud sighed and headed for the kitchen to get the errant machine out from amongst a pile of broccoli.

          "Hello?  Cloud here." 

          "Thank the Planet.  I was beginning to think you were out somewhere."

          "Well, Tifa hid the PHS in the . . ."

          "I need you here in Midgar.  Now."

          "I'm not one of your little Shinra flunkies, Reeve.  I don't take orders from you."  Tifa moved up behind Cloud and he turned up the volume so she could hear as well.

          There was silence for a moment.  "There is the possibility of many people dying.  As in, entire cities."  Reeve said carefully.  "I'm doing what I can, but I know you can do it better.  Please, as a friend, or just as a good person who doesn't want a lot of innocents to die, please help me."

          "What happened?"

          "I can't talk about this now, the news has gotten in the bad habit of bugging my phone.  Lets just say one of the scientists here was using his funding to work on something very different from what he said he was.  I'm sure you can imagine the type of trouble that could cause, probably better than I.  I know there aren't wild Chocobos near you and you don't keep them anymore, but if you hurry, you can be here by nightfall.  Please say you'll come?"

          "Cloud can't travel that fast.  He's sick!"

          "Tifa?  I'm glad you're there, I wanted to ask you to come too.  How sick is he?"

          "I'm fine.  I'll be there this evening."  He turned off the PHS.

          "Cloud you can't!  What if it happens again?"

          "Then I'll deal with it, or you'll take care of me, if you'll come.  This sounds too important to skip.  Besides, it happened at about three month intervals before.  There's no reason to suspect it will happen again soon." 

          Tifa glared up at the towering megalith- a little less towering since Meteor blew off the top few floors.  Why the hell had Reeve decided to use the bottom levels of this heap as the offices for the small business that had once been Shinra anyhow?  A nice little house would have worked just as well, and then she wouldn't have to face the memories in there again.  Even worse than the memories, Cloud had convinced her it would be rude if she wore her fighting gloves and armor in, so she had it all in her purse instead.  Speaking of who. . .  she glanced over at Cloud, who was watching the building without expression.  If anyone ought to dislike the place, it was him.  So why didn't he look upset? He seemed more bored than anything else.

          "Come on, Tifa, stop trying to tear it down with your eyes.  Lets go see what Reeve wants."

          Another surprise was waiting for them just inside the door.  "Barrett!"  Tifa eagerly embraced the huge man.  He got to wear his weapons, she noticed grumpily.  "What are you doing here?  Don't tell me you accepted a job here?!"

          "Don't be a dang fool girl.  I ain't never gonna work for Shinra.  But, well," he scuffed his foot on the ground, "Reeve said he really needed my help, and the guy seemed really upset.  For a Shinra, he's a pretty fair guy you know.  I thought I'd come listen at least.  Same with you two?"

          "Yeah."  Cloud replied.  "He wouldn't tell us what's up though.  Did he tell you?"

          "Not a damn thing.  Something about the communications not being secure.  He's supposed to be the head of Shinra; how come he can't keep people from eavesdropping?"

          "You guys AVALANCHE?" A guard in Shinra uniform eyed them suspiciously.  "The boss says you're to go up.  Third floor, second right."

          Cloud nodded and headed towards the elevator.  

          "Gee, thanks to you too," Barrett mumbled under his breath.  "Reeve needs to teach his men about manners."

          Cloud shrugged.  "Maybe we killed some of his friends two years ago.  They were just doing their jobs, and now they're dead.  They didn't even have the choice of joining us because they didn't have the information we did about Shinra's dastardly deeds.  If all he does is glare at us, I don't mind."

          "Cloud!  Barrett, Tifa, it's wonderful to see you all again."  Reeve bounded over to them, somehow suspiciously looking like his robot mog despite the difference in tummy size.  Actually, last time they had met, Reeve had put on enough weight that they were teasing him about the resemblance to the fat, happy-go-lucky mog that had fought with Avalanche because of that.  Now it looked like he had lost all the excess and more.  The only puffy area was the dark circles under his eyes.

          "I wish we could be meeting under better circumstances."  Cloud commented as he shook Reeve's hand, raising one eyebrow in invitation.  

          "Yes.  Well."  He sat himself down behind the desk again, steepling his fingers. "A Shinra scientist was assassinated yesterday."

          "I'm so sad."  Tifa commented.  "Did you invite us here for the party?"  

          "I was in Corel, and I got lots of witnesses!" Barrett banged his fist down on the desk.

          Cloud was silent.

          "I'm not accusing you Barrett, in fact, if I had known what this guy was up to, I'd have invited you over to do the honors.  But now I need your help to catch the killers."

          "Now you wait one minute!  You just said this guy was up to no good.  I say we give 'em a reward for riding the world of another bastard Shinra!"

          Reeve rubbed his forehead tiredly and pushed a folder across the table to Cloud, who opened it and began looking through the pictures and papers.

          "Warren Nibro.  He was studying the use of rare minerals to produce energy without the mako plants."  Cloud said.  "A nice thought, if impossible."

"A two year old could have told him that there's no electricity in stones."  Tifa rolled her eyes.

"That's what he said he was working on.  Then, two days ago, he announced that he had successfully created a new power source, and would hold a press conference the next day.  Which was news to me and all his superiors.  He absolutely refused to say anything else to anyone.  The next morning he was dead, and all his computer files were missing.  Probably an inside job, since security wasn't alerted.  I'm looking into that end already."

Cloud frowned.  "One of the other scientists didn't want him stealing the glory I imagine.  Not that they needed to worry.  Ninety five percent of all the press conferences the Shinra scientists give are pure BS, and this one seems farther out than most.  This looks like a job for your police, Reeve.  Why do you need us?"

"Because my men can't keep their mouths shut and I don't want this to get out to the news and create a panic.  A man came to me last night with news that he had seen Nibro drunk in a bar a few months ago, mumbling unhappily about how he might be making the most powerful non-mako weapon ever, strong enough to destroy all of Midgar.  My staff and I stayed here overnight doing more research.  Most of his work was missing, someone apparently stole it, but we found this," he hauled a stack of papers onto the desk, grunting a bit, "at his house.  It's diagrams for a weapon, sure enough.  It's highly unfinished, but the date on it is a full year ago; he might have finished it by now.  I don't understand it, I'm no scientist, but it's something about energy and matter being the same thing and if you spit the basic building blocks of matter you'll get energy.  It sounds stupid, I know, but the friend I gave it to almost exploded with glee when I gave it to her, talking about how it would revolutionize science, despite a few parts she didn't understand."

"You have a friend who's a scientist working for Shinra?"  Barrett asked suspiciously.

"I _am_ Shinra," Reeve said tiredly.  "And believe it or not, there are some scientists here who are not unethical, power hungry bastards like Hojo.  In any case, even if that diagram doesn't work, it could blow up large area if they mess up while making it."

"It's still very likely that it will do nothing."  Cloud said, watching Reeve closely.     

"Are you willing to take that chance?  Someone stole all his materials from his lab, copied everything off the computers, and then destroyed the machines.  That person thinks it'll work, and they wanted it."

"Why the fuck did you have him studying new weaponry?!" Barrett snarled suspiciously.  "I thought you were supposed to be creating the new Shinra that didn't do junk like this!"

"I didn't know about it,"  Reeve snapped back. "I can't personally keep an eye on every employee here, and he was very good about sending reports that he was working with rare rocks."

"And the sheer stupidity of that didn't tip you off?" Tifa shook her head in disbelief.

Reeve slouched back in his chair and rubbed his forehead.  "Trust me, that isn't even close to the stupidest thing those idiots are working on.  We do need an alternative energy source; you all saw how many people died of cold with the mako turned off last winter.  I almost turned them back on, but if the WEAPONS returned mankind might have been wiped off the planet.  I didn't dare.  Trust me Barrett, Tifa, I would like nothing more to shut down the whole dang science department, but until they come up with some other source of power. . . ."  He shook his head.  "I don't want anyone else to die this winter."

          "Assuming it works, how much damage have your people estimated this could cause?  Without mako, I'm assuming it isn't going to do much."

          "Read it."  Reeve thrust another sheet of paper across the desk in answer to Cloud, who had settled into a chair across from him to read silently through the piles Reeve had given him.

          "Less damage than the meteor that created the Northern Crater three millennia ago, but probably more powerful than the Sister Ray or any demi-god summon materia,"  he quoted, eyebrows raised.

          "What!  Give me that."  Barrett grabbed the sheet.

          "That's impossible!"  Tifa declared.  "Nothing could do that- especially without materia!"

          "I agree, but I'm not a scientist.  I repeat, are you willing to take that chance, or will you help me?"

          "Even if it does nothing, I'm worried about the type of person who would want this."  Cloud glanced around.  "I'm in."

          "Shit, you seriously falling for this garbage Cloud?  Fine, I'm with you then.  Someone's gotta keep your head screwed on straight."

          Tifa nodded.  "If Cloud's going, then I am too of course."

          "Do you have any clues on who might have done it?"  Cloud asked.

          Reeve nodded.  "Just one, and it's not much, but there was another guy in the bar who seemed very interested in what Nibro was talking about.  No one got his name, but he's short, with curly brown hair, thick eyebrows, and a beard.  He's also fairly overweight.  His accent sounded like he was from down south around Mideel."

          Cloud nodded.  "I want to bring Red and Cid in on this.  Any objections?"

          "None at all.  In fact, I'd be delighted.  I just wanted to run it by you three first."

          "Fine.  Ask Cid to pick up Red and meet us on the way then.  Tifa, Barrett, we'll leave in the morning, it's too dangerous to travel by night.  If we leave by sunrise we can make it there in two days.

**********************************************************

Oops. Seph, being his usually contrary self, neglected to put in an appearance in this chapter like I said he would.  He will undoubtably be in the next one though.

Inarae

ginabrae@aol.com


	3. CH 2: WHERE AM I?

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER TWO:  WHERE AM I?

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

Oh, and by the way, I love C&C on my writing.  Short comments make me happy, but 

if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, I'd be delighted!  Thanks 

for reading.

Inarae

***************************************************

CHAPTER TWO:  WHERE AM I?

Tifa yawned and smiled at the soft orange light trickling through the roof of the tent.  It had been a long two days of riding, and she was sore from being out of shape, but tomorrow they would enter Mideel and hopefully clear the stupid mess up.  She had to admit she was enjoying adventuring again though, regardless of her complaints to Reeve.  Making a few extra dollars one week at the Seventh Heaven restaurant and bar just didn't compare to the pride of knowing she was making a difference in the world.  Of course, there wasn't much that could compare to the pride of having saved the planet.

She grinned to herself.  Not that she wanted anything like that to happen again, of course.  

From the sound of the snores, everyone else was still asleep.  She got an idea.

"Psst.  Hey, Cloud,"  she whispered to the pile of blankets next to her, "wanna go take a walk before everyone gets up?  Just the two of us?"  She leaned over to shake his shoulder.  The bed was empty.  She frowned, and then laughed at herself.  He had had a similar idea apparently.  She liked hers better though. 

Outside, Red was lying against a tree, the large desert feline enjoying the sun's warmth against his chestnut fur.  Traveling to the colder southern climates was always hard on him.

"Good morning, Tifa."  He smiled at her with his sharp fangs, at odds with his cultured low voice.  She no longer even noticed the incongruity though.

"Good morning.  Have you seen Cloud?"

Red blinked in surprise.  "He's not in the tent?  I've been out here for almost two hours, and he hasn't come by me."

          Tifa frowned.  "Two hours. . ."  They looked at each other.  Tifa hurried back to the tent.

          "Cloud?!"  She flung open the tent flap so the rising sun illuminated the still figures inside.  

          "What the fuck are you doing, Tifa, it's barely morning!"  Barrett grumbled, rolling over to guard his eyes from the sun.

          "Yeah, girl, show some consideration to your betters!"  Cid growled, the gray haired pilot choosing to hide his head under his pillow instead.  

          When Tifa didn't reply, Barrett rolled back over to stare at where she stood frozen in the doorway.  "Tifa?"

          Cloud's bed was empty.

          "He would never have left us deliberately, not without telling us.  Something must have happened to him!"

          "Maybe he just wandered off to take a piss,"  Cid suggested. "Geez you women get upset over the littlest things. . ."  He lit his pipe and took a puff for emphasis.

          "He's been gone more than two hours."  Tifa replied, still staring at the sword.  "Red's been awake that long, and he hasn't seen Cloud."

          "Two hours!?"

          "All right," the canine put in, twitching tail belying his calm voice,  "I think we'd better go searching for him.  Everyone, stay in groups of three or more, and meet back here in two hours."

          Cloud was dreaming.  Like most dreams, he wasn't sure where he was going or why, but it was quite urgent, at odds with the quiet dappled sunlight of the forest that swam in and out of focus around him.  Almost absentmindedly he killed a bunch of frogs that attacked him.  Strange that something so dangerous had become so commonplace he didn't even fear them in his dreams.

          The trickling of a small brook reached his ears, and a thought occurred to him. He wasn't sure what thought, but it involved the stream, so he headed in that direction.  Once there he filled his canteen with water and gathered up some of the edible bulbs nearby.  A quick spot of luck and inhuman reflexes garnered him three medium sized fish from a school that had been hiding in the reeds near the water's edge.

          Good.  He dumped his harvest in his pack and set off again on his original course, happy.  He wondered idly why he was alone.  He hadn't been alone for a long time.  Not since Sephiroth.  He still dreamed of that time, when he couldn't tell the difference between the real world and the one he had created to hide from the changes the mad scientist Hojo wrought on his body to make him into Sephiroth's 'clone'.  When he wasn't sure who he really was, when Sephiroth's commands whispered in his mind, and his body moved to those orders as if long strands of the young general's silver hair were wrapped around his limbs like a puppet's controlling strings.  The illusions had been so real. . .  Alone, sometimes he forgot that he had broken them, that Hojo and Sephiroth were dead, that he alone controlled his actions now.  So his friends usually made sure there was someone with him to remind him who he was.

          For no particular reason he could discern, he decided to build a fire near a large oak whose branches threw deep shadows for yards around.  Tifa had been carrying the flint and steel, but it didn't matter.  A quick thought and the pile of wood he'd gathered burst nicely into flame.  That was odd.  He had never been able to do magic without mako filled materia jewels before.  Sephiroth had been able to, courtesy of the mako Hojo infused him with.  Cloud had been forced to go through the same mako treatment, but it didn't seem to catch as well for him.  

He put the fish and vegetables into a pot next to the fire.  In about fifteen minutes it was done, which was good because he really was incredibly hungry, and almost ready to eat it raw.

          He scooped it into a bowl and walked (NO!) towards the shadows at the (NO, Don't!) base of the oak.  (Run.  RUN, Damn you!  Oh, God, No, no, please no. . .)  Those thoughts weren't important though.  A little voice twittering in the back of his mind, an odd quirk of his messed up mind that he could ignore, that was all.  

And then he saw what was in the shadow and knew it had been his own voice warning him.  He could only watch helplessly as his own helpful arms gently lifted and tilted back the aristocratic head, supporting it on his lap as silver strands spilled over his forearm.  Even with the muscles lax in seeming unconsciousness, the man still looked arrogant and deadly.

          Against his will his shaking hands carefully spooned the broth into the unresponsive mouth, stroking the heavily muscled neck to activate the swallow reflex.  The glowing green mako eyes that had haunted him for years were closed but he could see them clearly in his mind's eye, laughing merrily as he fought and screamed and his meekly obedient body fed Sephiroth's unmoving form.

          When Avalanche and Co., as the smart-mouthed princess of Wutai had once named the group,  gathered back at the campsite two hours later, no one had found even a footprint.

          "Now what?"  Cid asked.  "I mean, our mission is kinda important. . .  We told Reeve we'd do it.  Cloud, well, either he can take care of himself or he's probably dead already."

          "You bastard."  Tifa snarled, clenching her steel gloved fists.

          "Cid has a point." Red commented, looking upset.  "There's no sign he was taken.  If he had a good reason to go, he is quite capable of taking care of himself, much better than the rest of us in fact."

          "But he's been sick, who knows how that might have affected his thinking. . ." Barrett protested.

          No one replied.  Tifa bowed her head.  Then she snapped it up, eyes blazing.  

          "Well, I'm not leaving until I find him.  I thought the rest of you were his friends, not Shinra lapdogs, following Reeve's whims."

          "I'm staying with you,"  Barrett announced.  "It's dangerous t' be alone out here. Well, except for someone like Cloud of course," he amended hastily, catching a look at Tifa's face.

          "All right."  Red drooped his head.  "Then we will go look for this man in Mideel, and you will find Cloud."

          "But. . ."  Tifa protested.

          "Cloud was the first one of us to agree to do this for Reeve,"  Nanaki/Red reminded them.  "He thought this might be important.  We do dishonor to his judgment if  we all put it aside to look for him now.  Good luck."

          "Damn."  Barrett slammed his gun fist into a tree and watched as the red beast trotted off, the others following.  

          Bang. Bang.  Tie the wedged limbs together.  Hit them a few more times to make sure the lean to was steady.  Get another piece of wood.  He was about two thirds done, but now that the sun had risen, he should be able to work faster.  Despite the soreness in his arms, he deliberately kept choosing the biggest limbs he could find so exhaustion would keep him from thinking too much. A familiar voice snickered at his stupidity in his head, but he did his best to ignore it.  Still, he couldn't help wondering about some things.  Like where Sephiroth had been the last two years, and why he was spending his energy forcing Cloud to do simple menial tasks, rather than just doing them himself.  Well, the last was at least partially obvious.  The man, or was he still human enough to be called a man?- Sephiroth looked half dead, incapable of moving if he tried to.  So he needed Cloud to get food and shelter.  But why was he so weak now?  If he had been like this since their duel, he should have died by now.  Ouch.  Sephiroth didn't want him thinking too much apparently.  No big surprise there, the General had a serious control fixation when it came to the people around him, especially his clones.

*_Clones as people?  You're not a person.  You're one small, insignificant part of me, not even as useful as my little finger.  It at least helps me balance Masamune's blade.  You're like a damaged limb, with odd fits of weakness and uncontrollable muscle spasms.  A liability I need to fix.* ___

*If I'm just a part of you, who're you talking to right now?  Yourself?  That's a sign of insanity you know.  Not that anyone needed more proof.*

The voice stayed silent, and Cloud briefly enjoyed imagining the General pouting.  Strange that he was able to think straight actually.  His memories of the other times Sephiroth controlled him lacked a lot, but he seemed to remember that he couldn't think while under Sephiroth's control, it was only afterwards that he realized what he was doing, and even then only sometimes.  Was Sephiroth's mind as weak as his bod. . .

           . . . Crackle.  Snap hiss.  An arid smell.  The smoke from the fire tickled Cloud's nose, while the flames cast a pleasant halo of light protecting the camp from the dark night surrounding them.  Night?  When had that happened?  He had a vague memory of finishing the lean-to.  Oh, he had caught more fish also.  And a rabbit, which someone had eaten.  Probably Sephiroth, since he still felt vaguely hungry.  Or maybe it had been a long time ago, or maybe it was Sephiroth feeling hungry.  Sephiroth?  Of course, the main part of him, the soul that had been missing and made him feel so empty for so long. . .  Wait.  No, that wasn't. . . Sephiroth had taken total control of him again, hadn't he? But why had he loosened his grip again?  Was he so weak he couldn't keep control of him?  No reaction to his traitorous thought.  Did that mean Sephiroth wasn't listening?  That Sephiroth wasn't controlling him right now?  Again, no reaction.

          Cloud glanced over at Sephiroth, tempted to try and escape.  The man lay quietly in the lean to, sunlight dappling his face where it snuck through the chinks in the roof.  His long silver hair, colored so from the day of his birth, fanned out around his tall frame like a sea of frost.  Had it been Hojo's will that his son looked so alien?  Had he manipulated his son's genes to give him the gray hair along with physical prowess and genius, that men of power would accept orders from the young man under the illusion of age?  If so, Sephiroth's growing it into a long ponytail defeated the purpose, for he looked inhuman and deadly, not wise with experience and age.  It wasn't an illusion.  Even with his muscles atrophied from lack of use, his skin tight against his bones from starvation, the general could probably slaughter half the standing army without breaking a sweat.  If he was conscious, which he hadn't seemed to be for as long as Cloud had been with him, despite the mocking voice that occasionally entered Cloud's thoughts.   

What was Sephiroth planning?  Why was he alive?  If Cloud ran now, what would happen?  Sephiroth had tried to destroy mankind once by summoning a meteor to crash into the planet, having been driven insane by the voice of the alien Jenova, whose cells Hojo had used to form Sephiroth and Cloud's DNA.  

The knife Cloud had used to gut fish beckoned from a stone near the fire.  He reached out and grabbed it.  But was he sane or dreaming?

          *_Part of me.  Liability.  Damaged**.***  Diseased.  He had felt like this once before, lost in the chaos of his own mind.  Sephiroth was dead, he had killed him.  So the general couldn't be here now.  Could he be imagining all this, could the man before him be innocent of Sephiroth's crimes?  _

Sephiroth was dead, and he had mental problems.  The two constants in his life.  Well, that and Tifa, these days.  And Barrett, and Vincent, and Red, and even Yuffie, Cid, and Reeve.  If Sephiroth was back, what would happen to them?  He would go after them in revenge for his death, just as he had gone after mankind in general for what Hojo and the other scientists had done to Jenova in the name of science.  They weren't strong enough to stand against him- only Cloud had been, injected with Sephiroth's very genes, infused with mako and Jenova just like the general - Hojo's slip shod effort to create a super human again after Sephiroth went AWOL upon learning that he was nothing more than a half monster hybrid experiment.  When Sephiroth had returned, if was after he had become Jenova's personal executioner, his target the entire human race.  He might become that again.  Cloud couldn't take that chance.  He brought the knife down.

************************************************************


	4. CH 3: WHO’S IN CHARGE, ROUND TWO

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER THREE:  WHO'S IN CHARGE, ROUND TWO.

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

C&C  makes me happy!  Thanks for reading.

****************************************************************

CHAPTER THREE:  WHO'S IN CHARGE, ROUND TWO.

    The knife froze an inch from the general's throat, despite his best efforts to make it go farther, and Cloud found himself staring into glowing green eyes burning with anger from only inches away.  There was something else there also, carefully guarded.  Had he scared the general?  His trembling arm casually tossed the weapon off into the bushes.

    *That was stupid, like always.  Tie yourself up.  I want to get some sleep without having to worry about you.  I'll deal with you more thoroughly in the morning.*

    No.  He had almost been free.  He had been free, for two glorious years.  Suddenly Cloud was angry.  How dare this ghost return to haunt him?  He had destroyed it once, he could do it again.  How many times was he going to have to prove himself?  How many times would he let the silver devil destroy his life?  Visions of his hometown Nibelham burning, of Tifa screaming, of the newly remodeled Seventh Heaven Bar up in flames. He clenched his fists, ignoring the burning ache in his head in favor of the single minded fury.

    There was no doubt about it this time.  A flash of fear in the General's eyes.  Suddenly every muscle in his body clenched so tight he felt encased in concrete.

    _*You are mine!*___

_    *No.*_

    He felt something break, and wondered if it was his own mind.  Moonlight glimmered off in the bushes he had thrown the knife into, beckoning.  He took a step towards it, the world distorted and slow to the odd, powerful thing his mind had become.  His skin felt like impenetratable armor, separating him from the world, so he was existing 

in his own private universe.  It was like the rush of battle: power, calm control, almost pleasure, but without the nervousness.

The pressure inside him disappeared.  He looked back to see the General standing, a five foot blade having appeared out of nowhere unsheathed and ready in his hand.  

    *_I could only control you when I left my own body alone.  Thank you for healing it.  Perhaps I shall return the favor and heal you after I'm done with you tonight.*___

    The feeling of power disappeared as quickly as it had come.  Wide eyed, Cloud turned and ran.

_    *Trying to escape?  I'll enjoy the hunt, clone.  And when I catch you, you'll never think about disobeying again.*___

    Sephiroth watched the terrified boy crash through the bushes, his carefully calculated last words driving him mindlessly into the dark.  At least he wouldn't be back for a while.  The silver haired man sheathed his blade and sank down against a tree, letting the silent night calm his thudding heart.  That had been a surprise.  Not entirely 

unexpected, but still a surprise.  Cloud had gained a strong enough sense of self to have the willpower necessary to use the inherent power he inherited from Jenova.  Sephiroth lifted one hand and stared at the long, elegant fingers, still thin despite Cloud's care.  It had been worth it.  He may not be in shape, but he could care for himself from this point, and the rest of his skills would come naturally later.  As long as Cloud and his friends left him alone that long. 

This time, he would live.

    Tifa's PHS beeped, almost making her fall off the log she was crossing.   

    "Hello?"  _Please let it be Cloud, please let it be Cloud.___

    "This is Nanaki.  How soon can you and Barrett get down to Mideel?"

Tifa frowned at the phone.  "I have to find Cloud, Red, you know that."

    Red's voice was interrupted by frequent bouts of static, courtesy of being so far from any large populations.

    "Cloud's alrea. . (static) here. Just come to Mideel.  We . . .(static)"

    "What is it?"

    "Just come on down, I'll . (static). . when you get here."

    "I told you he could take care of himself."  Barrett's large left hand patted her shoulder awkwardly as she slowly folded up the PHS and put it away in her small canvas pack.  

    "I just wish I knew why he left in the first place."  She replied, looking off towards the Nibelhim Mountains and Mideel.

    "We'll know soon."

    "Red!"  Tifa waved enthusiastically at the dark chestnut beast lying in the road at the entry gate to Mideel City, hiding her disappointment that Cloud hadn't come out to meet her.  That was just the way Cloud was though.  Red pushed himself to his feet and shook gently to get the dust out of his fur before trotting over.   She patted him gently, enjoying the residual warmth from his sun bath.  

    "Welcome, Tifa, Barrett."

    "Where's Cloud?  Did he say why he ran off like that?"

    Red's gently waving tail hesitated a beat.  "He's asleep at the inn.  And we're still not sure why he left.  He seems. . . confused."

    Tifa's heart seized up.  "Did he have another attack?  He's been ill, I told him not to come, but he insisted he was fine. . .  Where. . ."

    "Tifa."  Red caught the  black polyester of her shorts gently in his teeth, holding her till he was sure she had stopped.  "There's another problem.  His previous attacks he's just been incapacitated, and lost his memory for a short time.  This time he's imagining things, and acting on them.  There's a chance he might be dangerous."

    "Not to me!"

    "Tifa, he seems. . ."  Red hesitated.

    "Whatever you're trying to say, just say it straight out."  Barrett frowned as he spoke, shifting nervously.

    "He's approaching the age Sephiroth was when he went insane.  And now he's insisting that Sephiroth is back in his mind, that it was Sephiroth controlling him when he left us, and that we have to get ready to fight him again."  The words poured out of Red's mouth rapidly, as if he couldn't wait to get the hateful words said and over with so he wouldn't have to say them again.  He hung his head in shame, not likeing having to say such things about a friend.

    Tifa pressed her hand to her mouth, backing away from him a step   "You're the insane one.  Cloud would never hurt anyone!"

    "But Tifa," Red scuffed his front paw in the dirt.  He sighed.  "I don't want to think about it either.  But you know he's been having problems.  What if next time he imagines Sephiroth forcing him to kill someone?  Or if he thinks he sees Sephiroth and attacks some innocent person?  Cloud is probably the most dangerous person on this planet right now.  He's as powerful as Sephiroth ever was, maybe more so."

    "Get away from me."  Tifa hissed in a cold voice.  "Cloud is nothing like Sephiroth.   What room is he in?"

    "203"

    Tifa nodded sharply, turning towards Barrett.  She stared at him for a second, then hurried off towards the downtown.

    Red sighed and drooped his head.  "I didn't want to say that, but someone would have.  I wanted her to know what to expect before she saw him."

    "I know." Barrett suddenly felt heavy, and leaned against one of the pillars holding up the gateway.  "I hope you're wrong about him.  That girl's been through enough already."

    She slid open the door gently, but he was already awake.

    "Tifa."  His voice was relieved, desperate.  "Tifa, you have to believe me.  He's back.  I don't know how, or why, but he is.  We have to stop him."

    She blinked back tears.  "Sephiroth?  Cloud, Sephiroth's dead.  You killed him, remember?  In the Northern Crater.  We all saw him die."

    "He must have escaped somehow.  He's weak, but alive.  Tifa, I saw him, I heard him, I even touched him.  You have to believe me.  Please."

    "Cloud. . ."  she swallowed, "you've been sick, remember?  And your memory's never been reliable.   There's no way Sephiroth could be alive.  You must have imagined him.  Why did you leave the camp?"

    "The camp?"

    "We all woke up and you were gone.  We were on our way to Mideel, to do a favor for Reeve, remember?"

    "He called me.  I had to go to him."

    "No one called you.  The only person who could have has been dead for two years.  Cloud, you have to believe me.  The others think you're going insane.  You have to stop talking like this."

    "Tifa, he was there!"  Cloud insisted, but his eyes clouded with hesitation.

    "Your illness made you imagine all this.  Please believe me.  You're just getting yourself worked up over nothing."

    "You think I'm insane too."  He looked away.  

    "Just stay here and get some rest for a while . . .  Please, trust me.  It's going to be ok.  There's no danger."  She reached out at grasped his hand, massaging the palm.  

    "Tifa?"  He asked, still watching the wall.  

    "Yes."

    "I want to be alone."

    She tried to hide how much that hurt. "Sure Cloud.  Just get some rest, and I'll see you later."

    Twilight in the Nibelheim Mountains.  He could hear gentle gusts of wind push the icy clear water of the lake he was camped by against the mud of the shore.  A bull frog croaked once, twice, but there were no answers, so Sephiroth disregarded it.  Perhaps a tribe of frogs would have the courage to attack an armed man, but not a lone one, unless it was a female with young to protect and feed.  Of course, in that case, the frog wasn't really alone, the young just wouldn't join the fight, Sephiroth mused.

    The trees brushed branches with a cheerful rustle, like neighbors chatting over a back fence.   It wasn't a comforting sound though; it was almost as if they were deliberately leaving him out of their conversation, or that they were discussing all his flaws, complaining about how a human didn't belong in their world.  Of course, he wasn't really human, and he didn't really belong anywhere.  A low howl echoed against the cold stone of a cave somewhere and escaped out into the open, ending in a series of sharp siren like barks.  A mako monster, crying it's loneliness to the night.  Normally pack animals, they were almost extinct now.  That was good news to travelers, who had once been savagely prayed on by the giant insect, but rather sad to Sephiroth.  A pack of mako monsters, especially if they were commanded by a smart buck, made truly worthy opponents.  Much worthier than frogs anyhow.  He snorted, reaching across to the fire and taking the hunk of greenish leg meat off the spit he had made and tearing off another large bite.  He was already pleasantly full, but he still needed to put on some weight, and besides, it smelled good.

_    *I DON'T BELIEVE IN YOU. I KILLED YOU. YOU'RE DEAD. I COULDN'T HAVE SEEN YOU.  I DIDN'T SEE YOU.___

_I won't go insane like you.*_

    Cloud's words slammed into his thoughts, making him drop the food and almost choke on the piece he was chewing.   After a prolonged spate of coughing, the offending piece ended up on the dirty ground besides the spit the meat had been cooking on, his having knocked it over while coughing.  Sephiroth glared at the dusty, disgusting looking mess.  

    _*What the hell was that about?*  _He snarled back, and was rewarded by Cloud's shock that there had actually been a reply.

    _*I'm not hearing you, I'm not hearing you. . .*_   Cloud chanted desperately, and tried to pull away from the contact.

    _*Oh no you don't.*_  Now that he'd recovered from the surprise, Sephiroth was amused by what he was fairly sure was going on.  _*Your friends convinced you I didn't exist, didn't they.  Oh Planet but you're easy to manipulate.  They can't even touch your mind and they can control you.  Just imagine how easy it is for me.  Not that it really matters though.  You know the truth, deep down inside.  I am here, and I own you.* ___

    The more Cloud tried to convince them that he was alive, the more they'd be sure he was insane.  What an useful situation.  Cloud truly had gotten stronger though; two years ago he would never have been able to contact Sephiroth on his own.  Or was it that he was just confident enough in himself to believe he could?

    _*Leave me alone!*_  Cloud jerked free and fled back to the safety of his own mind.  Sephiroth let him go.  After a few seconds he realized he was smiling.  The chilly night seemed warmer somehow.

    "Has he ever done anything like this before, Tifa?"  Red asked.

    She shook her head.  "Only that once, leaving the northern crater after we killed Sephiroth.  He said he killed Sephiroth a second time in his mind.  I thought that was just some odd psychological method his unconscious was using to reassure him everything was alright.  When he's gotten sick recently, he just collapses, although sometimes there's slight memory loss of the time right around it."

    "We need to get him to a doctor, find out what's wrong with him."  Barrett slammed his fist on the table, jarring everyone's glasses.

    "He won't go.  He doesn't want anyone figuring out how to do what Hojo did."  Tifa hesitated, looking down into her cup of tea.  

    A good reason, Red acknowledged silently. 

    Then Tifa continued, her voice firm.  "But I took a blood sample from him when he was unconscious last time and sent it off to Reeve, asking him to have his people look into it.  So we should be getting results soon."

    "You trusted the damn Shinra scientists?  They're the ones who did that to him!"  Barrett stared at her in shock. 

    "Who else would have a chance at figuring him out?  No one else has anywhere close to the knowledge necessary. . .  I was so worried. . ."

    "Well, maybe Reeve knows something then."  Red said practically.  "Why don't we call him?  Who has a radio?"

    Tifa silently got hers out and began punching in the correct frequency.  _Why was this happening now?  What was wrong with her?  Why did everything that happened to her hurt so much?___

    _Stop that, _she chided herself_.  Think of all those people trying to survive in Midgar, with the plate falling, and Meteor, and the Mako factories off.  They're having a much harder time of it than you.  Hmph.  Cloud's chiding about how the new Shinra wasn't that bad must be having some effect, she hadn't blamed Shinra in those sentences.  ___

_Cloud,  Please be alright.  Just be having a weird chemical imbalance they can give you supplements for, or have this be the worst of it, so now you'll start getting better.  People get sick all the time, and then they get better.  Please let this be a sign that your body's behaving like a normal person's, not that Hojo's changes are turning you into something alien.  _

    The radio beeped and Reeve came on.

    "This is Reeve.  What's happening?"

    Tifa opened her mouth and then realized she couldn't bring herself to say it.  Barrett tugged at the small communications device in her hand, and she let it be taken without contest.

    "This is Barrett.  Listen, Cloud's real sick.  Tifa said she asked you t'have someone look into it.  You got anything?"

"I'm sorry," he said, and there was real regret in the Shinra president's voice.  "Everything my people have seen, and yes, I've been very careful in who I let see his tests,  just has them confused.  Half the stuff in him they would label as immediately fatal, and the rest they haven't figured out a purpose for.  Hojo didn't believe in the normal standard of one variable per experiment apparently.  He changed everything he could think of- there's no way of telling what was successful and what wasn't, or even what is necessary to keep him alive versus what was designed to make him a deadly warrior.  They're still working on it though; maybe they'll come up with something soon.  

I'm sorry, I realize that isn't much.  What's happening with him now?  Is there anything I can do to help on a more immediate basis?"

    "Cloud's. . .  not thinking straight.  He disappeared for four days, and now he's insisting he saw Sephiroth.  He'll be OK though, we're taking care of him."

    Reeve caught the inherent problem in that statement immediately.  No one ever accused him of being stupid, just of having a lack of pride and ambition.  Of course, now that he was the most powerful man in the world, people were saying that he had planned it that way all along.  "That's . . . not good.  How close do you think he is to going insane like Sephiroth did?"

    "Hey, you're jumping to conclusions awful fast there!"

    "Part of my job is to prepare for any situation, unfortunately.  That means I have to consider all possibilities, and that has been a possibility with Cloud ever since Hojo ran the same experiments on him he did on Sephiroth.  All right, what are you planning on doing with him? No offence, but if there's any chance Nibro really did design a new super weapon, and that Cloud might start imitating the general, I don't want Cloud anywhere near it."

    "We're not just leaving him here.  Not for a stupid mission like that one."

    "It's not stupid."  Reeve protested.  "What if it's true?  Please, I need your help, Barrett."

    "Red and I'll keep going.  We got brains."  Cid had flipped on his own radio, apparently getting tired of the way Barrett was talking.  "And  I think we ought to lock the kid up.  Don't get me wrong, I like spike head, but we gotta think realistically here.  The planet's had enough pain with one Sephiroth.  We can't risk Cloud turning into another one."

    That let Tifa find her voice.  "We are NOT locking Cloud up!  He hasn't done anything wrong."

    "Yeah, you guys just gonna forget he saved the world?  We owe him.  Heck, the whole planet owes him."  Barrett's low voice  rumbled angrily.

    "I'm not planning on locking anyone up!"  Reeve put in hastily, trying to prevent a fight.  If Tifa and Barrett stayed out, there wasn't much chance of anything getting done.  Red would try his hardest, but he just didn't have enough experience with the seamier side of human culture, and Cid would just insult everyone.  "Tifa, Barrett, I'd really like you in on this.  What about leaving Cloud with Vincent?  He lives down there somewhere, doesn't he?  We all trust Vincent, including Cloud.  Is that OK with everyone?"

    Tifa pursed her lips.  Barrett shrugged.  Cid took a puff of his cigarette.  "Hell yeah.  Vinnie's strong enough that even if Cloud does go wacko, he can keep him there long enough for us to deal with him."

    "That does it.  I'm staying here."  Tifa snarled.  "Find your detectives elsewhere, Mr. President."

    "That's not what I meant!"  Reeve protested, but Tifa wasn't listening.

    "Besides, Vincent's had Hojo work on him too.  How come you're not worried about him going insane?"

    "Besides the fact that he has none of Sephiroth's cells, was modified in a completely different way, and hasn't gone insane yet even though he's almost double Cloud's age?"  Cid asked.   "Listen, little lady, it's for Cloud's own good too.  What if next time he tries to hurt himself?  You ain't strong enough to stop him, girlie.  Stop thinking like a love struck teen and use your brain."

    "How dare you!"

    "Tifa!"  Reeve yelled, stopping conversation for a second as the voice circuits overloaded with a painful screech.  He sighed and rubbed his forehead, imagining the secretaries in the other room wondering why he was yelling a woman's name when he was supposed to be alone in his office.  "I just mentioned Vincent because he's a friend, and because I'd be more comfortable if you were helping.  If someone is building a super weapon, they're going to have a lot of security, and you and Barrett have a lot of experience infiltrating and sabotaging large organizations."

    "I'd like you to come along too Tifa."  Red spoke up for the first time in the conversation.  "You notice things Cid and I don't- he focuses on the mechanics, not the people, and I just don't have enough experience with normal human society.  Besides, Cloud thought this was important.  I don't think he would be happy if we failed for lack of manpower.  I'm sure he'd be all right with Vincent."

    Tifa bit her lip, looking at Barrett.

    "I'll do whatever you do, Tifa."

    "I just don't want to leave him. . ." She muttered.

    "I'll be fine.  Go with them."

    Everyone spun around.  Cloud was standing in the doorway. 

    "Everyone is right.   I might be becoming a danger, which definitely means I shouldn't be on this mission, and Vincent is both a good friend and strong enough to contain me if necessary.  I don't mind, really.  And it would put my mind at ease if you were looking into this."

    "Yeah, you can hang out with golden arm while we do all the work."  Cid snorted.  "Sounds like the good life to me.  You sure you're not just faking this  to get a vacation, kid?"

    Cloud smiled slightly at the white haired pilot, not insulted in the slightest.  Cid's 'I don't give a damn about you,' attitude just meant he was worried about something and too afraid of being unmanly to show it.  "Really everyone," Cloud continued, "protecting the planet from another bunch of crazy scientists is a lot more important than bringing me cookies in bed, and that's basically all your staying here would amount to.  If there was anything you could be doing to help me, that would be one thing, but as it is. . ."

    "You'd just as soon not have the whiny bunch of us along alternating suspecting you and pestering you with excess care.  Got ya, kiddo."  Cid grinned around the stinky smoke coming out the stick in his face.  Gods but he liked the kid.  You could count on Cloud to know what needed to be done and do it, a rarity in this group.  Red was too polite to ever make a firm decision and tell the others what to do, Barrett focused on solving one problem to the exclusion of everything else, and Tifa, well, Tifa was female with all the emotional bull that entailed.  Now Yuffie was female too, but that girl had been fairly with it.  Had her own set of priorities that didn't match everyone else's, but she was pretty thorough about making sure what she thought was important happened.  Pity she was female and a bit of a coward.  Otherwise he was sure she'd grow into quite the man in a few years.

    In a small room full of electrical equipment, most of which had once belonged to the deceased Warren Nibro, a sharp nosed man quickly rewound the recording of the conversation he had been eavesdropping on and listened to it again.  Then he summoned his boss.

    Vincent had a small and very humble hut at the far end of the island Mideel was on.    Almost impassible cliffs kept the city's population from venturing into that area, but they weren't a problem for the adventurers, whom Reeve had equipped with golden chocobos.    The tall man was waiting silent and unmoving in the shadows of the doorway as they arrived, looking eerie with his glowing red eyes and knife tipped golden arm.  Even his clothing seemed unnatural, the red cloak hanging stiff and still despite the breeze, the leather too heavy to billow like everyone else's cotton clothing.  And as always, the scarf covering his deadly fangs obscured any emotion that might have been showing on his face.  He slowly scanned the group.

    "Welcome.  I'm afraid I'm not set up for guests, but you're welcome to come in."  

    Everyone looked at the tiny one room cabin.  There was no chance of them all fitting inside, which was probably a deliberate act to discourage visitors.

    "Ah, it's a beautiful day.  Why don't we just talk out here?"  Red suggested.

    Vincent nodded.  "As you wish."  He glanced over at Cid, who hurriedly extinguished his ever present cigarette, suddenly regretting his plan.  He had forgotten how dang uncomfortable the man made him.  Times like this made it really easy to remember that Vincent had been one of Shinra's elite and conscienceless assassins before an ill-considered love affair with Hojo's wife had turned him into one of the mad scientist's lab rats, and eventually into a half-man, half-monster hybrid that went berserk with bloodlust in battle.

    Cloud smiled and swung down off his chocobo.  "Good to see you, it's been too long!"  He cheerily called out, leaving the huge bird's reins loose in the dust.  It was well enough trained that it wouldn't wander off.  "How's life been?"

    "Nothing of particular interest has happened."

    "Sounds good.  A lot better than the old days in any case, right?"

    "Perhaps."

    As if their brief conversation was a signal, the others started getting down off their chocobos as well.  Tifa ran over to hug him, and was rewarded by a rare gentling of Vincent's stoic face.

    "Hey, man."  Barrett offered a huge hand, which the other man shook obediently.  "You should come visit us more often.  Or at least write, we never hear from you." 

    "I apologize."

    "Sure, whatever.  So what have you been doing?  You're not farming, obviously, and you're too far from trade routes to be working, but you've got machine made stuff in there, so you're earning money somehow."

    "I am hunting the monsters in this area."

    Cid perked up.  "Really?  Me too.  Well, not in this area.  Actually, Sheera made me get a job, a stupid thing flying packages all over like a post office or something, but it's just so dang boring I mounted a gun on the front and hunt anytime I fly over a group of monsters.  Life's just no fun without a good fight, y'know?"

    "It is my penance for the evil I have committed."  Vincent replied, and everyone blinked, trying to come up with any possible response to that.  Once again Cloud broke the awkward silence.

    "Actually, I was wondering if I could stay here with you for a while."

    Vincent looked at the young man, victim of the same crazy scientist who had turned him from man into other.  He seemed to understand the situation without asking.

    "Certainly." 

    "That's it?  You're not even going to ask why?"  Tifa asked in surprise.

    "You all know I do not desire company, and have respected that.  Your presence here now implies that something is seriously wrong.  The only reason you would want me is if you are facing an enemy so dangerous you think the power in my chaos beast form overrides the inherent danger to anyone near me after I change into it.  Beyond that, I do not need to know.  I will give you all the aid I can."

    "Alright."  Tifa shrugged, still surprised, but not objecting that no one was telling Vincent that his job might be to fight Cloud.  

    "I suppose you all ought to be going now then," Cloud suggested.  "You have a lot to do." 

    "Yeah."  Everyone mounted up.  Tifa hesitated, one hand on the stirrup, watching Cloud.

    "What's the matter girl, don't wanna leave your lover-boy?  Just hurry and get going and the faster you can get back to him."  Cid snorted.  Cloud opened his mouth, face bright red, but nothing came out.  Tifa said it for him, her own face burning.

"I'm just worried about a friend."

    "Yeah, well, I don't see you worrying about the rest of us like that."

    "That's because you're not ill, although I can fix that if you want me too."  She threatened.

    "Geez, ok, ok.  Women get so emotional over their love lives."  He kicked his chocobo into a trot and headed off.

    "Umm. . ."  Cloud wasn't sure what to say yet.  

    Tifa glared at everyone.  "We're just friends."  Her voice dared anyone to contradict her.   No one did. "Hmph.  Well, I'll see you later then Cloud."  She had the grace to sound apologetic when she looked at him.  "Thanks for looking after him, Vincent."  Suddenly embarrassed, she finished mounting, turning the Chocobo back towards Mideel and hurrying off.  _Gods, had she actually said that?  Now Cloud was going to think that not only did she not like him, she thought of him as a little kid she had to protect.  Why oh why couldn't she learn to keep her mouth shut? _  

The others quickly said their goodbyes and followed,leaving Cloud and Vincent still standing before the hut.

    "Would you like to come in?  I have tea."   

    "That would be nice."  Cloud entered and sat down.  The inside was immaculately ordered, much like it's owner.  The furnishings were simple but well crafted and not displeasing to the eye.  Cloud suspected that Vincent had made them himself, spending long hours alone sanding delicate corners till everything fit perfectly. 

    There was silence for a while as Vincent got out cups and poured in the water, letting the leaves steep and then scooping them out with a strainer.  He placed a cup before Cloud.

    Finally Cloud spoke up.  "You know why I'm really here."  It wasn't a question. "I saw it in your eyes as we talked."

    "Your mutations are causing problems.  You might be dangerous, and my own mutations make me strong enough to stop you if necessary."

    "I'm sorry to make you deal with this."

    "There is no need to apologize.  I just ask that you do the same for me, should it become necessary."

    Cloud gave a half-laugh,  "Of course, my friend, of course."

    Barrett glanced over at Tifa, who wasn't exactly dragging her feet, but was obviously unhappy to be leaving Cloud anyhow.  Half her posture was her normal confident one, back straight, heels down, reins at the proper ninety degrees, but her head hung down so she watched the road instead of her surroundings, and her shoulders were slumped, neck muscles tense.   

    "He'll be ok."  He offered.

    "I know."  She didn't seem inclined to talk about it.

    He tried again.  "How come you're so worried about him?  Cid was right, you don't get that worked up over the rest of us."

    "Cloud's all  I have left of my past.  I don't like to go back to Nibelheim.  The city that Shinra built there after Sephiroth destroyed it isn't not where I grew up, it's some mockery the Shinra invented.  It doesn't help me remember the family and friends who died there, it insults them.  Cloud's the only thing I've got to remind me of them."  She kicked a stone pensively.  "Besides, I guess I'm feeling kind of useless these days.  Avalanche is disbanded, there's no point to us anymore now that the Shinra president is a . .  well, a semi-friend at least.  And there's lots of people who can run a restaurant, it's nothing special."

    "That's how most people live.  There's very few of us who get to form revolutionary groups and go save the world you know.  And the Seventh Heaven is something special; you made it yourself and it's become famous.  Most people spend their lives working for someone else, making stuff for someone else, never seeing the end product, never getting the credit."

    "I know!  I just feel. . .   But Cloud does need me.  There are days that he just stares off into the horizon, and it's like me and the rest of the world don't even exist to him; he's thinking on some different level that no one else can hope to reach.  And he seems so lonely.  Then I come up, and he smiles at me in relief, like I've reminded him that he really exists, that the world can actually be a good place to live in."  She laughed wryly.  "It's quite the boost to a girl's self esteem, I can tell you.  He makes me feel like I'm special just by being me, like there's a place in the world only I can fill.  And I can make sure he eats, and wash his clothes, and make sure he gets out to do fun things like festivals and movies sometimes.  Sounds stupid doesn't it?  But it makes me happy."

    _And that's not love?_  Barrett thought, trying to hide a grin, even as the word love brought a pang to his heart_.  Sounds like what everyone really wants; someone who makes them feel worthy just by being themselves, someone who makes them happy.  Does it matter that much that he never brings you roses, that you never feel that rush of craziness for wanting him?  From the sounds of things, you did plenty of that type of romancing in your younger years.  Isn't this better, something deeper that'll last?  And it's not like you're caring for him because housework is all you're fit for; you've proven yourself to the world in every possible way:  starting up and successfully operating a revolution against the most powerful controlling force on the planet, surviving the destruction of your hometown to become one of the deadliest warriors in existence, courageously fighting aliens and insane supermen to save the world.  While doing all that you've been running a restaurant, which in itself is a full time job and more than most people, men or women, could do on their own.  Now it looks like you've got the man too.  I know most of Midgar's female population has Cloud at the top of their most eligible list.  What's wrong with any of that?  Maybe you think you should have some strong man to care for you, Tifa, but you're too independent to be happy that way.  You'll always be the one in charge in your household, caring for your man.  If you're ever not, there'll be something seriously wrong.___

    Barrett clasped her shoulder.  "Well, we'll just find this guy quickly so you can get back to Cloud then."

    She snorted.  "Cid said that too, remember?  Don't quote him.  One Cid is plenty."

    Red took charge once they reentered Mideel.  

    "All right everyone, spread out and start asking around about a short, brown haired, bearded man who was in Midgar two months ago.  We need tents and a few other supplies too, but I'll pick those up myself."

    "Have you seen anyone like that?"  Tifa asked a shopkeeper after describing the man.

    "Nope, honey, there's no one like that who's ever lived around here."

    Tifa blinked.  "You're sure?"

    "Completely.  This is a retirement center.  Most of us have lived here for decades.  Our major form of amusement is chatting about the newcomers.  Besides, almost everyone has gray hair.  You youngsters really stand out."

    Tifa frowned.  "What about just a short, overweight man then?  He could have been wearing a wig and fake beard."

    "I wish I could help you, but we're pretty into healthy living here.  Of the few overweight people, one is tall, and the other two are female.  Sorry honey.  Hope you find your friend soon."

    "Yeah, well, you've been a lot of help anyhow.  Thank you."  She pursed her lips thoughtfully and headed back to the restaurant they were meeting at, hoping someone else had done better.

    "Any luck?"  She called out as she approached.

    "Nope."  Barrett grumbled.

    "I'm afraid everyone's assured us he couldn't have come from here."  Red added.

    "Me too."  She rested her face in her hands.  "This is sounding impossible."

    "Don't give up yet."  Cid laughed as he sauntered into view and plopped down at the table.  "Get me a beer,"  he called out  over his shoulder to the waitress,  "Once again, it looks like Cid's gonna save the day."  He took a deep gulp of the mug she brought and let it drop back to the table, liquid and foam splashing over the side.

    "What did you find out?"  Red asked eagerly.

    "Well, this one fellow recognized me from a delivery run I did a bit ago, wanted me to carry something for his daughter in Midgar. Birthday present, you know.  So we got to talking, and he starts mentioning other ways he managed to get presents to her every year, when there wasn't a pilot around.  Real proud of what a good parent he was; I wanted to get away and do some investigating, but he just kept talking and talking.  Seemed rude to just walk away you know?  Real boring stuff though.  So anyhow, then he mentions how about twenty years ago there was a couple of traders who did a lot of work down here, even though they actually lived up near the golden saucer.  Real short people they were.  Had a kid named Volg Calson in his early teens, brown hair.  The people here used to baby-sit him a lot, whenever there were a lot of monster attacks or the parents were carrying valuable cargo and expecting bandit attacks.  They didn't want to kid in danger you see.  Although the guy thought it might be because the kid was kind of a coward, the sneaky type that'd get allies killed by running and hiding  whenever there was trouble.  Anyhow, then Wutai opened up to trade, and they moved their route that direction looking for more profits.  No one's seen them since.  Now the kid would have been away from here for a long time, but childhood accents never really go away, you know?"

    Tifa blinked, as surprised as the rest of them.  "Cid, I don't  know how to say this, but you have the most astounding luck sometimes. . ."

    "Good job!"  Red barked happily.  "Now we can go to Wutai and find out where he went from there!"

    Barrett groaned and muttered something under his breath.

    "What was that?  I didn't hear you."  Red asked innocently.

    "Nothing."  Barrett looked at Tifa and saw her mouthing the word, the exact same expression of wry acceptance on her face. 

    _Yuffie.___

**********************************************************

Hi everyone!  Next up:  A visit to Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of the Ancient and Most Glorious Nation of Wutai- Yuffie!  Who's in love?!!!  More info on the bad guys and what they want with Cloud.  Sephiroth might show-  but most likely it'll be a chapter or two before he reveals anything of his plans.

Inarae

            ginabrae@aol.com


	5. CH 4: WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER FOUR:  WHO ARE THESE GUYS?  THINGS GET CONFUSING.

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

By the way, I love C&C on my writing.  Short comments are great, but 

if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, I'd be delighted!  Thanks 

for reading.

Inarae

***************************************************

CHAPTER FOUR:  WHO ARE THESE GUYS?  THINGS GET CONFUSING.

    "Control, this is 04.  We're ready to start the mission.  The other man has left the house, but the target is still inside."  The voice had a slight nasal twist, like the citizens of Mideel.

    "Acknowledged.  Be careful, don't forget how dangerous he is and get yourself killed.  I don't want to have to explain why your corpse is over there."

    "Yes, sir.  If he's been seeing things and is afraid of hurting people in his delusions, this shouldn't be a problem, sir.  He'll hesitate at least a little; that'll be enough."

    "Well, the best laid plans and all that.  You have the sleeping gas?"

    "Yes, sir.  And we plugged up all ventilation into the hut yesterday while they were gone."

    "Then the best of luck to you.  I'll see you in a few days."

    "And then we'll rule the world."

    "Of course."

    *_NOOOOOO!  *_

The scream cut off suddenly, leaving Sephiroth clutching his head in pain, kneeling on the ground.  What the. . .?  Cloud?  

He tried to reach out to his clone, but there was no response, just a disturbing stomach twisting emptiness.

    The chaos beast hissed at the men who had dared invade his territory, crimson eyes burning with pleasure despite the huge injuries torn in his side by their various weapons.  The wounds were healing quickly anyhow, and the pleasure overrode everything else.  Oh yes, this delicious mix of terror and pain.  The creature that had been Vincent slowly licked a man's blood off his arm, enjoying the horrified reactions of the men before him.  There was no where left for them to escape to, so he could play with them slowly before making the kill.  Some small corner of his mind noted the whirr of a chopter's blades disappearing into the distance, and considered doing something about it, but the metal bird was no where near as interesting as the live meat he had here.  He bared his fangs and spread his huge wings, signaling the start of the massacre.

    "Shit. . . Pick up, pick up!"  The short, fat brown-haired man yelled into the radio, sweat pouring down his face.  He kept glancing at the sky behind them, the rapid thwap thwap of the chopter blades echoed by his racing heart, increasing his terror.

    "Hello, this is the Heiwa Monastery.  How can I help. ."

    "This is Calson. I . . ." 

    "I told you not to contact me once you start the mission!"

    "Fuck the mission.  It's over, do you hear me?  That other guy turned into some sort of fucking invulnerable giant beast, didn't even notice anything we did to it!"

    "You're hysterical.  Besides, I told you to take him while the other man was gone."

    "We did!  He always leaves at six each morning and doesn't return till eight, when the target wakes up.  I don't know why he came back so soon this time!"

    "So you failed to get the subject."  His commander's voice was cold, dangerous.  

    The short man hesitated.

    "No, actually, I've got him.   But everyone but me and the pilot are dead, that monster killed them.  Or is in the process of killing them."  He shuddered at the memory.

    "Wonderful. Good job, Calson."

    "What?!"

    "It saves us the trouble of getting rid of them ourselves.  They were all just hired muscle right?  There's no way they could be traced back to us?"

    "That's right.  But. . ."

    "And you got the target.  What's the problem?"

    The man looked down at the blood liberally splattering his clothes, sprayed there when the beast had ripped the arm off one of his men.  He blinked.

    "Nothing, I guess."  His heartbeat was beginning to slow down now that the danger was over.  "I'm sorry to bother you, sir."

    "You should be.  Idiot."  There was a sharp click and the phone went dead.  Calson stared at the speaker for a second before slowly reaching forward and turning it off.  Still a coward.  He'd spent his entire life to get rid of that appellation, learning to fight, to kill.  He had become one of the best in the entire Shinra army, and everyone knew it.  If he hadn't been, Falstor wouldn't have chosen him for this job.  And yet, all it took was a monster and a plan that didn't quite work the way he had planned to terify him as if he was still the six year old boy who had ran from the @wolves, leaving his baby sister to die at their fangs.  He had heard the disgust in the General's voice, felt the scolding twisting through his heart.  Coward.  He set the 'copter to autopilot, a twisting course that would cover most of the planet before arriving at the Heiwa base.  He slid out of his chair and kicked the unconcious man on the floor visciously.  It was stupid, he knew, but it made him feel better.   He smiled coldly as he felt a rib snap under his steel toed boot.  His foot shot forward again.

    The ripe smell of blood, the stink of ripped bowels, they were familiar, and bothered him not in the slightest.  If anything, he was slightly impressed by the scale and viciousness of the slaughter.  The corpses were carrying some powerful weaponry, but it apparently hadn't aided them in the slightest.  Not that he had expected anything less, considering their opponent.  He walked steadily through the blood soaked ground, his black boots squishing slightly, heading towards the dark haired man panting dizzily on the ground.  Sephiroth grabbed a handful of the red scarf and yanked the other man to his feet, slamming him against the hut's wall.

    "What happened here?"

    It took a second for the glowing red eyes to focus on him, and then they widened in shock.  "Se. ."  Sephiroth  slammed him into the wall again, tightening his grip till the other man was almost chocking.  

    "Where is Cloud?"

    Vincent struggled  to speak through the constriction at his throat, feeling Chaos attempting to reemerge.  Cloud hadn't been imagining things.  He had to warn the rest of Avalanch. . .  

The knife sharp fingers of his metal arm tried to slice at his captor, but the other man easily batted it away.  At last the general realized his captive couldn't speak and released him.  

Vincent fell to his knees, coughing.  Then he raised his eyes to calmly meet the glowing green ones.

    "If you keep attacking me, I will lose control of Chaos.  Even you would find that inconvenient, I should think."  He warned, getting to his feet, only leaning on the wall a little with his good arm.  Sephiroth detested whining.  It stood to reason that he would treat a calm opponent with some amount of respect.  Not that Vincent ever planned on whining anyhow.  

    "I can deal with your other form as easily as I am dealing with you now.  Where is Cloud?"

    Cloud?  Cloud! That's right, what had happened to him?  Surely he hadn't . . .  but he hadn't tried to identify the bodies yet.  He tried to sort through his muddled memories.  He  had left to go hunting, . .

    *_Useless*._

    The voice echoed in his mind, and then something was forcing him to remember what he had forced himself to forget.  Leaving to go hunting in the early morning mist, smelling the strangers before he was five minutes from the hut.  Cloud's sudden angry yell snapping him into battle mode, and that combined with Chaos' natural territoriality pushing him over the edge, serrated black wings erupting painfully from his back as his muscles swelled, his skin changing into a tough blue black scaled armor that would withstand almost anything.  Then the slaughter, . . .  but Sephiroth wasn't interested in that.  He focused tightly on a brief glimpse of an unconscious and chained Cloud being tossed onto a black helicopter, and the helicopter taking off for the northwest.  Then he was gone.

Vincent opened his eyes.  As he expected, there was no sign of his lover's son.  He quickly got out his PHS, worry for Cloud and the planet overriding both the pain from the injuries Sephiroth had dealt him and the slight, traitorous happiness he felt that something of Lucretia still lived.

    Barrett twisted around and got the PHS off the back of her pack as it beeped.

    "Hello?"

    "We have a problem."  Vincent's voice was as emotionless as always, although he was breathing hard.  "Cloud has been kidnapped by a large group of heavily armed men dressed in black uniforms.  And Sephiroth arrived here looking for him shortly after they left."

    The man's still as miserly with words as ever, was Barrett's first thought.  Then, "Oh, shit.  You saw Sephiroth too?"

    "What?!" Tifa gasped.

    "Oh, dear.  He _is_ still alive?"  Red murmured, eyes wide.

    "Most definitely." Vincent acknowledged.  "I have the bruises to show from it.  He wanted to know what happened to Cloud."

    "You didn't tell him, did you?  Do you know who the kidnappers were or what they wanted with him?"  Tifa asked urgently, her heart skipping a beat.  Oh, Cloud, I should never have left you . . .

    Vincent hesitated.  "Luckily I know absolutely about them, for Sephiroth entered my mind somehow.  He knows everything I do.  In fact, he found things I couldn't even consciously remember."

    Cid began to swear, loudly and obnoxiously as he slid off his chocobo and began to pace.  "The fucking vampire belongs to green eyes now too?!  Shit, we don't have a fucking chance in a fucking green moon!"

    Red blinked in confusion.  "I think the saying is 'once in a blue moon. . ."

    "Shut up!"  Tifa snarled at them.  "We need to find Cloud first.  Who took Cloud?"

    "What the fuck does it matter?!" Cid railed.  "Our two strongest fighters serve the bad guys!  We're chicken feed next to them, and you all know it."

    "Yeah, chicken sure fits you well, flyboy.  Now shut up!"  Barrett slammed his gun fist into his palm warningly.

    "I did not recognize anything about the attackers, but I will go investigate in more detail now."  Vincent ignored the continuing argument he could hear over the PHS and steeled himself for the grusome process of going through the corpses' clothes, looking for identification.

It didn't take more than three bodies before he discovered a trend.

"Their uniforms were made in Wutai.  The weapons are from all over, as they themselves are."

"Wutai?!"

    "That's where that guy. . ."

    "How do you know?"  Red interrupted the surprised noises.

    "I was born in Wutai.  There is a distinctive pattern to the way they tie off the ends of threads when sewing.  A double shark, they call it.   No one else uses it because it can't be done by a machine, so they have to hand tie each end.  It is one of the reasons Wutai clothing is so expensive," he replied.  "A second ago you said, 'That was where that guy . . .'  what were you referring to?"

    "We're on our way to Wutai now.  Apparently the guy we're hunting has ties there as well."  Red replied.  "This isn't looking good.  If the people who stole Nibro's weapon are the same ones who took Cloud, and Sephiroth is hunting Cloud, then Sephiroth could conceivably get his hands on a very dangerous piece of equipment."

    "Are we sure that it is Sephiroth?"  Barrett asked.  "What if it's some weird illness that people with Jenova cells get, and Cloud just passed it on to Vincent.  He could be hallucinating.  No offence Vincent."

    "None taken."

    "I think we have to go on the assumption that Sephiroth is somehow still alive."  Red said seriously.  "It is too much a risk to do otherwise."

    "Aren't we assuming a bit much here?  We're going on the assumption that the weapon might be dangerous, even though odds are high it isn't, the assumption that Sephiroth is back, even though that is impossible. . ."

    "Red's right, Barrett."  Tifa interrupted.  "We have to assume the worst.  After all, the idea that an alien would try to destroy the planet is pretty far out as well,  but sure enough, Jenova and Meteor were here."

    "Even though a lot of people still believe that was all a trick Reeve cooked up to make his coup more legitimate."  Barrett grumbled.  "Yeah, I get what you're saying.  I just still can't believe. . . We killed the bastard, damn it!  So what do we do now?"

    "We need Cloud to defeat Sephiroth, so we've got to rescue him first."  Tifa said firmly, hoping she wasn't letting her feelings for Cloud affect her judgment too much.

    "It would make more sense to destroy the weapon first, so Sephiroth can't get his hands on it."  Cid protested, and then slapped himself on the forehead.  "What the hell am I saying?  This is insane.  Why are you all so dang calm and accepting?  Sephiroth's back and everyone's just going to continue on like always?"

    "What would you have us do, sit down and start wailing like a kid that's skinned his knee?"  Tifa snapped.  "This is serious.  The planet is in serious danger again.  If we don't get our act together, Sephiroth could wipe out mankind like he failed to do last time.  Admittedly, he doesn't have the resources he had then, but he could still hurt a huge number of people."

    "Just as long as everyone knows this if fucking suicidal."  Cid snapped.

    "Are you refusing to help?"  Tifa demanded, hands on her hips.

    "Hell no!  This is my planet too, and I ain't letting any weasely silver haired alien take it.  Just want to make sure everyone knows the situation."

    Barrett sighed.  "All right then.  We have three goals: prevent anyone from using Nibro's weapon, stop Sephiroth from doing whatever it is he's planning, and rescue Cloud, right?"

    Red nodded.  "Doing any of them will take us a long ways towards accomplishing the other two, and right now they're all taking us in the same direction.  We'll decide what one to do first when the opportunity presents itself.  Let's get going to Wutai."

    "What do you want me to do?" Vincent asked.  "I am a liability if Sephiroth can control anyone who has Jenova cells, as is implied by his ability to invade my mind.  Also, someone should contact Reeve and tell him what is going on.  We do not have to do everything ourselves this time; we have the entire resources of Shinra to aid us."

    Everyone blinked at that.  

    "Hell yes." Cid said slowly.  "Not only will we not have to fight Shinra at every turn, Reeve can supply us with weapons, information, money; hell, he can call out the entire Shinra army as back up for us."  He began to grin.  "We might actually have a chance here."

    "There's always a chance," Vincent said, surprising everyone.  That from the guy who thought himself permanently damned for falling in love when he shouldn't have?

    "All right, Vincent, why don't you meet us in Wutai."  Red nodded sharply as he spoke.

    "Are you sure about that?"  Cid asked.  "I mean. . . you know. . ."  he waved his hands vaguely.

    "We stopped Sephiroth last time with Sephiroth controlling Cloud.  In fact, I doubt we could have stopped Sephiroth without Cloud.  Vincent will probably be helpful as well.  Any objections?  Very well, lets get going then.  We have a lot to do!"  

************************************************


	6. CH 5: WUTAI

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER FIVE:  WUTAI

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

Oh, and by the way, I love C&C on my writing.  Short coments are nice, but 

if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, I'd be delighted!  Thanks 

for reading.

Inarae

******************************************************************************

CHAPTER FIVE:  WUTAI

          "Her Royal Highness will be with you shortly,"  the silk clad servant finished serving them tea and bowed deeply, backing out of the hall.

          Barrett made a face as he took a sip, then sighed as he looked around, shifting uncomfortably.  Everyone was sitting on pillows, for Christ's sake!  This was supposed to be the palace's new formal meeting room; couldn't they afford some chairs?  And what was up with the drinks?  Tea was bad enough, but this tasted like chocobo feed or something.  Tea was supposed to be lightly flavored water mixed with sugar and milk, not thick green goop.  Maybe it was actually ground up spinach or something, and Yuffie was just playing a practical joke on them.  Hell, maybe this was actually the prison room or something; sure looked like it with the dull gray green walls and woven straw mat floor.  Didn't rich people usually have floors of marble or fancy tile or thick luxurious carpet?  There weren't even any pictures to break up the monotony of the walls.  Well, there were some signs mounted on patterned paper, but he couldn't read the weird symbols they used for writing here, so for all he knew they were directions to the restrooms or saying No Smoking or something.  Speaking of which,

          "Would you knock that off?  At least wait till you're outside."  Barrett snapped at Cid, who was happily puffing away on a cigar.  At the least the guy could change his brand.  Barrett was dang sick of that particular sickly sweet smell.  God he hoped Cloud was OK.  Where was Yuffie?

          "Why'd we have to come here anyhow?  We ought to be out looking for Cloud!"  He shifted uneasily as he spoke.

          "This is Yuffie's country; not only would it be rude and counter productive to insult her by not visiting, she has tight ties to the underworld here.  If Cloud or that guy have come through here, she'll know it."  Tifa snorted.  "Of course, that leaves the question of what she'll demand in exchange for the information."

          Everyone jumped as the doors slammed open, two files of soldiers marching in smartly and snapping to attention on each side of the doorway.

          "Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of the Ancient and Most Glorious Nation of Wutai!" the commander called out in a booming voice.

          And then Yuffie appeared in the doorway, and there was total silence while Avalanche attempted to collect the wits that had fallen out their open mouths while they watched dumbfounded.  They had expected Yuffie to do something unusual, probably something ridiculous and irritating- try to steal their materia, or have them arrested for trespass, or just keep them waiting here forever- but this?

          Yuffie looked. . . well, she looked like the princess she technically was, swathed in intricately brocaded silk robes that forced her to walk with tiny mincing steps that somehow looked incredibly feminine rather than ridiculous.  Her hair had grown out, or she was wearing a wig, for her head was covered in intricate braids and loops coiled above her meekly bowed face.  Pearl and gold accents adorned the dark mass, leaving her slim neck pale and vulnerable looking in contrast.  Her face had been lightly brushed with a pale powder and touched up with crimson blush to give her skin a smooth glow, highlighted by darkened eyes and light red paint tracing her lips.  She bowed gracefully from the waist and knelt before them on a golden cushion two guards hurriedly prepared for her.

          Avalanche was still in too much shock to say anything.  Was this really the aggressive tomboy who had accompanied them to fight Sephiroth, swearing like Cid, stealing from everyone and anyone, dressed in a ridiculous mix of admittedly efficient armor and picking fights she'd run away from as often as possible?  Then Yuffie looked up, and the improbable image of an elegant stranger fractured irreparably.  No one could mistake that arrogant, mischievous expression for anyone except the smart mouthed kid.  But why the costume?

          "May I inquire as to what brings you to Wutai?"  Despite the humble phrasing and soft voice, her expression turned the question into something more like, 'So you need my help again, huh?  Be prepared, it's gonna cost you, and I'm gonna enjoy each penny I squeeze out of your pockets.'

          Barrett bit his tongue to keep from commenting.

          "We need information, and it's very important."  Red stated earnestly. "We're looking for a short guy named Volg Calson, with brown hair, who's slightly overweight.  His parents were traders around here about twenty years ago; he might still be one.  We're also looking for a bunch of men who dress in black uniforms that are likely associated with him.  The uniforms were made in a style particular to Wutai, that's why we're here.  They kidnapped Cloud."

          Yuffie blinked.  "That's impossible.  Cloud could kick the entire army's asses.  Well, the entire Shinra army's asses anyhow, not Wutai's.  Where'd you get your information?"

          "He's been sick.  Do you know anything?"  Tifa put in impatiently.

          "Well, I don't know anything about black uniforms, but I know Volg.  He works for some rich monastery on an island up north.  Heiwa monastery- the monastery of peace, for those of you who only speak common.  About a year ago, Volg came here looking for some isolated land to rent as a meditation center for his order.  Now, everyone knows the one true religion is the worship of the water dragon, but I figure if he wants to waste his time with something else, that's his business.  We're very tolerant here you know."

          Everyone looked at her.

"Well, the ridiculously high rent they're paying for some useless rocks helps,"  she added, blushing, a spate of honesty she had been missing last time they saw her.  Two years ago she wouldn't have even acknowledged that there was anything off about changing one's morals due to infusions of cash.  Was she growing up?  Then Tifa noticed her glance apologetically at one of the guardsmen, the young one with the rather spectacular physique and stern face.  Yuffie winced slightly as his glare scolded her.  Actually, he kinda looked like he was trying to keep from rolling his eyes and grinning, but Yuffie apparently only saw the glare.

"It would be bad to refuse to do business with someone just because they have a different religion, right?"  She added hopefully.

Oh yes, first love and trying to gain the approval of the object of her crush - she was growing up.  Hope it works out; looks like he's good for her, Tifa thought, ignoring the traitorous thought of 'I hope Cloud and I get the chance to see if it will work out too.'  Oh Cloud, where are you?   

Barrett was grinning also, having caught the exchange.  Actually even Red had an amused twinkle in his eyes.  Only Cid seemed to have missed it.  And of course, Cid being Cid, once he recovered from his shock over how she was dressed he couldn't leave it alone.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"  He exploded.  "You look like a girl!"

Yuffie blinked.  Immediately opened her mouth to say, "I am a girl," in confusion, realized what Cid's comment implied about the way she'd looked before, looked over at her guardsman friend in horrified humiliation, and then began to get seriously pissed.  Of course, just as her hand slipped up inside her sleeve to where she kept some throwing daggers, she realized that killing him wasn't very lady-like and tried to control herself.  It took a lot.

"I'm going to ignore that comment because this room is new and I don't want to get it blood stained already," she said softly.  "But I strongly suggest you learn to watch your mouth."

"Me watch my mouth?  Listen girl. . . and that's another point, what the hell is wrong with your architect if this is what he considers a reception room?  It looks like part of the damn sewer or something.  Can't you afford some regular teacups and chairs?  Maybe some decorations on the walls?  Just some advice, if you want to impress political folks, put them in the someplace nice, like that back room in the palace with the big golden thingy."

Yuffie snorted, seeing a perfect chance to insult him back.  "The shrine?  A sign you have absolutely no culture, fly boy.  Not that I should have expected any from someone like you I suppose.  That whole section of the palace is overdone and gaudy to impress and overwhelm idiots and farm boys so they'll be so in awe of me they can be dealt with easily. Putting someone important there would be insulting, saying that I think they can be controlled that way too.  Of course, if you think you belong there. . .  Idiot."  Her guardsman was trying not to snicker again.  Actually, all the guardsmen were snickering, he was just doing a better job of hiding it than most.

           "Stop it Cid!"  Tifa snapped.  "Cloud is missing, probably kidnapped by a guy with a new super weapon that could kill thousands, and you want to argue about architecture?  Yuffie, do you have any data on this Heiwa monastery and it's members?"

          "Super weapon?"  Yuffie repeated slowly.  Behind her the soldiers had stopped laughing.  "That could kill thousands?  When were you planning on telling me about this?"

          "She wasn't deliberately hiding anything, none of us were.  We're just more worried about Cloud, because it doesn't seem likely that the weapon will actually work."  Red put in quietly.

          "Really?"  Yuffie's voice was flat.  "So explain it all to me now."

          "It started with Reeve. . ."  Red began.

          "We don't have time for this!  Yuffie, can you just give us the info on the monastery?  I swear I'll explain it all in detail later.  They could be killing Cloud right now!  I'll owe you big time," Tifa promised.  Saying that to Yuffie was about as dangerous as walking through the slums unarmed and wearing a fortune in jewelry, but. . .

          "I find it highly unlikely that they would kill him,"  Red said thoughtfully.  "If they could get close enough to take Cloud, they could have just bombed Vincent's house and killed him much easier.  That they spent the effort to kidnap him implies that they want him alive."

          "Yuffie, please."  Barrett said slowly.

          Yuffie looked around and sighed dramatically.  "All right, but one more condition.  I'm going with you, and you'll explain on the way."  She held up a hand to forestall comments from Avalanche and the soldiers behind her.  "This is my country, and I want to know anything that happens in it.  Moreover, it is my responsibility as ruler to take care of it."

          "Not in person!"  Her guardsman protested, ignoring the glare his commander sent him.  "What about your responsibility as heir to stay alive?"

          "Are you implying that I'm not a good enough fighter to take care of myself?"  Yuffie asked him, eyes narrowed.  Apparently love didn't go far enough to let her ignore an insult to her skills.

          "Something along those lines, yes!"  Ooh, he was brave.  "Even you aren't a good enough fighter that a lucky shot wouldn't kill you."

          "Are you implying that I should be a dishonorable coward and live here in seclusion for the rest of my life then?"  Yuffie wasn't budging, and considering the value the people of Wutai placed on honor and bravery, there wasn't much he could say to that.  Well, except:

          "It is not dishonorable for a commander to stay behind the lines of battle.  It would be worse for the country if the commander died and the army fell into chaos."  Hmm, a quick thinker, Tifa thought.  Wait, why was she sitting here listening to them waste time again. . ?

          "But the most successful and revered leaders in our history lead from the front lines.  Yu Wu says in his treatise on war that a general should risk his life alongside his men, that they may see his bravery and be inspired by it, and that he can see the situation first hand that he may plan his strategies better."  Yuffie retorted.

          "He was talking about a man!"

          Silence.

          Yuffie got to her feet, eyes cold.  "You forget your place, Lieutenant.  Come on Tifa, my tax collectors should have records on the monastery.  We'd better be going."

          Tifa got to her feet, hesitating for a second as she glanced over at the soldiers before she followed Yuffie out the door.  Barrett lumbered to his feet, shaking his head in sympathy as he passed the shell-shocked young man.

          "That's women for you,"  Cid commented as he went by.  "Completely illogical and selfish, never listening to their betters. . ."

          "Yuffie is the most intelligent woman I've ever met, and she's never been selfish, you bast. . ."  He sighed and let his shoulders slump.  Cid shook his head in disgust and continued out.

          "Move out!  Follow her highness!"  The commander snapped.  "Except you Lieutenant.  You report to the cleaning detail for punishment, and expect to stay there for the next six months!"

          Red shook his head and grinned.  Love was cute.

          "Jeezus," Barrett exploded as he began to look through the files Yuffie gave him.  "You're as bad as Reeve.  Don't you pay attention to what's happening under your nose?  Two thousand men, mainly elite soldiers and high ranking officers who left Shinra after Reeve took over and downsized the military,"  he quoted from the paper in front of him.  "Enough supplies going in each month to feed twice that many.  And this much weaponry being bought to 'protect them from monsters?'  Including dozens of mastered offensive materia orbs?  Hell, they could exterminate every monster on the planet with that.  They're preparing for a siege you idiot!"

          "What would you have me do, Barrett?  You don't have the slightest knowledge of what running a government is like, do you?" Yuffie looked coldly at him.  "All you see is what's going wrong.  Well listen up, there ain't no such thing as a perfect government.  I can't make everything happen the way it 'ought to'.  If I keep a close eye on my people, and thereby know when things like this are going on, I'm a tight fisted tyrant invading their right to privacy.  If I leave them alone, crimes occur and the legal system turns into chaos.  I have to choose a balance, but no matter what I do, bad things Will Happen!  That's life.  There is no 'good' government, only ones that are not evil.  All I or Reeve, or anyone else can do is try our hardest to be good, knowing all along that we will fail, and people will hate us for it.  Where do you get off judging us?"  

          "Jeez, I didn't mean it that strongly. . ."

          "Then don't say it."

          "We're all just worried about Cloud, Yuffie,"  Tifa put in.  "Please forgive us if we act rude."

          Yuffie sighed and rubbed her forehead.  "Yeah, well, I'm upset I didn't know about this too.  And I was kinda out of sorts to begin with."  She glanced over at her bodyguards near the door with a wry smile.  "Sorry Barrett."

          Not being sure quite what to say, Barrett stayed silent.

          "You're talking about yourself a lot in regards to the Wutai government,"  Red commented.  "What happened to your father?  Is he OK?"

          Yuffie blinked and shook her head, accepting the change in subject without comment.  "No, he's fine. He just wants to retire in the next decade or so, so he's having me get a feel for ruling for a few years before he officially steps down.  So what do you all want to do about the so called monastery?"

          "Sneak and fight our way in, rescue Cloud, smash any weaponry we find, discover what their plans are and sabotage them." Tifa put in promptly, face grim.  "How soon will you all be ready?"

          Later that evening, a young man was dejectedly scrubbing the tile floor in the men's privies, sighing deeply.  A silhouette slipped in behind him.

          "Psst, Allen."

          The man almost fell over, he spun around so fast.  The silhouette put it's hand to it's mouth to keep from laughing.  

          "Yuffie!  I mean, Your Majesty, I mean. . . Shit, you shouldn't be here. . ."

          She shrugged offhandedly.  "I'll take care of it if there's a problem.  I just wanted to see you before I go."

          He sighed and stared at the dirty sponge in his hand, squeezing it do brown liquid dripped out to puddle on the floor.

          "You're going then."  His voice was flat.

          She sighed and crouched down next to him.  "It's necessary."

          "Take me with you then, please.  Or the entire damn army!"  His eyes pleaded with her to reconsider.

          She shook her head.  "It's a quiet infiltration, not an open attack.  The more people there are, the less chance we have of succeeding."

          "Then why do you have to go."

          "We already discussed this.  It's my duty, I know the area and will be able to help them, and frankly, they're my friends, and I owe them.  If it wasn't for Cloud taking me in, I doubt I'd have lived this long.  I was too angry at the world, looking for a fight with anyone, but not experienced enough to win against someone skilled."

          He reached up and touched her cheek gently.  Her heart fluttered.  "Be more careful this time, please.  You're the only heir." 

          She jerked away, eyes flaring.  "I have six cousins."

          He blinked in surprise at the venom in her voice.  Why did she. .  ?  Ohhhh. . .  "I'll miss you," he offered.

          The anger faded as quickly as it had came, and she gave him a quick smile.

          "I just wanted to tell you that I wish you were coming too."

          "Then. . ." His eyes leapt with hope.

          She shook her head.   "No.  I've worked with Avalanche enough that we can function as a cohesive unit.  You'd be an unknown, and we don't need that."

          "Why don't you just take the whole army and blow the damn place to a billion pieces?"

          "You'll make a good strategist someday," she murmured, shaking her head slightly, smiling, but he couldn't tell if she was serious or making fun of him.  "If he really does have Cloud and a super weapon, we want make sure that he never gets a chance to kill Cloud or use the weapon.  He'd have plenty of time to do either while his men held off a frontal attack, even if we overran their defenses in minutes."

          He sighed.  "I don't like it, but I understand.  I'll be a good boy and wait here for you to return.  Don't you dare get killed though."

          She blew him a kiss, wishing she had the guts to make it a real one.  He blushed bright red anyhow.  "One more thing.  I told my father to start mobilizing the army, just in case we fail and need it.  I also told him to give you the Leviathan summon."

          He froze in shock.  "You need that, you idiot girl!" He hissed.   "Haven't you been listening to anything I've said?"

          "I've got the mastered original, dummy!  The one I'm giving you is the child that was born as it matured," she snapped back, keeping her voice low.

          "But still, surely your father. . . he's the guardian of the water dragon's land. . ."

          "My father has never used Leviathan.  He says he's too old to study a new technique.  You've at least played with it."

          He blushed bright red.  "How did you know that I. . ."

          "That you snuck into the armory and borrowed it last month to experiment with?"  She cocked an eyebrow at him.  "That's a secret."

          He groaned.  "Go on, get out of here and go to bed.  You're going to need a good night's sleep."

          For some odd reason, she blushed at that.  He thought about it a minute and then grinned inwardly.  She looked at him suspiciously.  He pasted an angry frown on his face and leaned towards her slowly and deliberately, his heart beating wildly, until they were about an inch from bumping noses.  She watched wide-eyed.  He darted forward and placed a quick kiss on her nose, then sat back to watch.  Her mouth opened and shut without anything coming out, her cheeks burning a brilliant crimson.  They stared at each other for a moment.  Then she got to her feet and regally turned and left the room.  Allen smiled.

          Yuffie threw herself down on the floor of her room, giggling uncontrollably.  A warm feeling blossomed in her stomach, and she realized that it was probably a very very good thing that he was not coming along.  But she sure as hell hoped it would be over fast so she could return home! 

************************************************************

Author's Note:  Yes, I see Yuffie as kinda an innocent, perhaps even the most innocent in the game, despite her attitude.  She's competent and world-wise, but she's still a princess, and aware of the behavior expected of her.  Regarding the beginning of this chapter:  I played almost the entire game without Yuffie- she irritated me increadably!  However, once it became obvious that Wutai was the best place to put this section of the story, I got her and replayed events.  I discovered that I really like her, but I had already written some of this based on my previous impression.  So apologies if you don't think she's accurate; you're probably correct.

Inarae

ginabrae@aol.com

*******************************************


	7. CH 6: THE HEIWA MONESTARY

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER SIX: THE HEIWA MONESTARY

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

By the way, I love C&C on my writing.  Short comments make me happy, but 

if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, I'd be delighted!  Thanks 

for reading.

Inarae

****************************************************************

CHAPTER SIX: THE HEIWA MONESTARY

Tifa shifted slightly, the gravel under her cutting uncomfortably into her bare waist.  She tightened the resolution on the binoculars she was using to spy on the Heiwa monastery, wriggling deeper into the dirt so the leaves from the bush she was lying under didn't get into her view.  Not exactly a beehive of activity, but no lack of people either. There were a large number of black clothed people standing still around the perimeter, half invisible in the niches and shadows they seemed to prefer.  Too many to be anything but guards.  Of course, the guns they were carrying were a good sign too.  She pulled her radio awkwardly out of the pouch at her waist, careful not to rustle the branches around her.

          "Barrett?"  she whispered.

          "Here.  What've you got?"

          She winced and turned down the volume hastily, lying still as she tried to determine if anyone had heard.  It seemed pretty unlikely; the nearest guard was a half-mile away.  However, that was just the nearest guard she'd seen.  It was always possible there was another one closer to her that was just better hidden.  After a few seconds of stillness, she relaxed and replied softly.

          "It's a fortress all right.  Five stories of concrete, an inner and outer wall surrounding it.  Guards on the inner wall about every two hundred feet.  Cameras on the outer wall, spikes and barbed wire at the base.  Only one gate, barred with a steel door that I've never seen opened.  It's possible they never open it except once a month when supplies come in.  They have a 'copter on the roof- they can get in and out through that.  But there's at least two machine gun nests up there too- I'm not sure Cid could safely fly us in."

          Barrett was silent for a moment.  "I'm glad Reeve told us to do reconnaissance first.  That's more than I was expecting.  Why the hell did they name it the Peace monastery?"

"Because people would be less suspicious?  Because they wanted to insult our intelligence?  Because they like making bad jokes?  Who knows?"  

Barrett sighed, audible as static over the radio.  "We don't have time to wait for the next supply caravan and try to sneak in with it.  Suggestions?"

          "It looks like they're expanding on the west side; both the inner and outer walls are torn down and being rebuilt in to include what looks like a large new building.  The ground's dug up and there's a bunch of walls, anyhow.  I can't see in too well.  I'm sure they've got it well guarded, but we could use the walls as cover as well as them, and it would be more like fighting indoors- the half built corridors will prevent them from arranging too many people against us at a time, which would be to our advantage.  They also wouldn't be as used to new construction.  I trust our abilities against humans more than physical obstacles in any case.  We'd still have to find a way into the main building though." 

          "We can manage that when we get there.  Come on back and let's get going."

          "I'm still not sure why we needed him."  Calson commented to his commander, staring into the security monitor display at the unconscious man strapped down to an operating table.

          "We don't, not now anyhow."  General Falstor, who had once ran the entire Shinra military behind Heidigger's foolish fat back, snorted softly as he leaned his lanky frame against a wall near the communications station.  "But in a few years, all the major opposition to our revolt will be destroyed, and only splinter groups will remain.  We could either waste our time trying to catch them, or leave it to someone designed for killing, like this fellow.  After all, the little toy Nibro made for us is great for blowing up entire cities, but not so good for the little stuff.  Destroying the metropolitan areas would damage the economy and cut into the amount of taxes we could gather to support our operations in any case."

          The younger man blinked.  "Designed for killing, sir?"

          "Ah, you didn't hear that report, did you?  This pretty little boy is apparently the clone of Hojo's dear homemade killer."  He paused, looking at his confused subordinate.  "You don't remember how deadly the General was?  Or perhaps no one ever told you that General Sephiroth was built by Hojo in a lab somewhere, not born?" Calson shook his head mutely.  His commander smiled coldly.  "Now you know.  In any case, rumor has it that this kid is the more advanced version, and that he defeated Sephiroth one on one.  Can you just imagine it?  An army of millions, all as strong and violent as him, all genetically modified to be absolutely loyal to us."

          "Genetically modified to be loyal?"

          "Hojo seems to have installed a mental control system on all his creations, perhaps seeing the value of having an army totally loyal to him.  Of course, his goal was apparently to have himself in power, so he linked Sephiroth to himself, and then all the rest of his creations to the general.  But I'm sure we can figure out a way to rewrite the program so all new versions will be loyal to us first."

          "Ah.  Yes, Sir."  Calson shifted uncomfortably. If the army had genetically engineered perfect warriors, what place would the normal soldiers like himself have?  He followed General Falstor for the same reason as most of the rest of the men here. The new president had disbanded a good two thirds of the Shinra army, and they had suddenly found themselves without purpose in a world where people who were associated with Shinra were suddenly no longer respected, but looked down upon as the idiots who caused Meteor's arrival and the Weapons, and then lost their entire empire to a tiny force of nobodies.  Not that anyone could explain why Meteor and the Weapons were Shinra's fault, but they had been in charge, so they took the blame.  So Falstor had gathered the discontented elite of the army, summoning them here under the promise of a future Shinra under his command, where they would once again be respected as they deserved.  

But these were stupid thoughts.  It would be foolish to waste men's lives when such a simple solution as using super soldiers existed.

          He shook the disturbing thoughts from his mind and noticed that there was a red light blinking frantically near one of the com channels.  

          "What's that, Sir?" He asked, pointing.

          "It appears we're being invaded," General Falstor replied, smiling distantly.  "Don't worry though, it's already been taken care of."

          "Everyone run!"  Tifa yelled, yanking the fuse out of a S-bomb and throwing it at the black-garbed soldiers rushing down the narrow stone corridor at them.  10, 9, 8, 7. . . she grabbed Barrett's arm and yanked him into a side passage as the rush of fire boiled down the hallway they had been standing in.  

          "Come on," Barrett panted.  "The others are down the other way."  

          Tifa nodded, too exhausted to reply as she pushed off from the wall she was slumped against and started jogging down the hall she had seen Cid run into, wincing as her legs protested.  There had been way too many desperate sprints in the last fifteen minutes.  Barrett had to be worse off though, carrying all his bulk as well as the huge gun attached to his amputated arm.  What the hell had happened? Entering the complex through the broken down wall had been easy, but once they had been too far in to retreat, the area had suddenly turned into a labyrinth of booby trapped corridors that lead to dead ends and squadrons of soldiers waiting in ambush.  They had managed to stay alive so far, but only because Barrett kept blasting holes in the walls to form new escape routes that their opponents couldn't predict.  But he was running out of ammo.

          Falstor was drumming his fingers against the wall, almost as if he was nervous, Calstor noted with unease.  That was impossible, wasn't it?  Abruptly the General turned to him.

          "It's taken too long to subdue the invaders. Call up the labyrinth security cameras."

          Calstor did as his commander ordered, and the screens changed.  "Avalanche," he breathed in disbelief and a touch of fear as he recognized the attackers.

          "Of course it's Avalanche," his commander snorted.  "We kidnapped their commander.  And it's not like they could have gotten the Shinra army to come, even though Reeve is loyal to Avalanche.  The military barely acknowledges Reeve's existence, and rarely follows his orders.  They certainly wouldn't move in opposition to me.  But I'm wondering why they're still alive."

          The lieutenant swallowed and adjusted the screen to get a better view.  "It looks like they're blowing holes in the wall to defeat the labyrinth's traps, Sir."

          "Hmph.  I didn't expect them to have heavy enough firepower to do that more than once or twice.  But I prepared for a much larger assault party; we still shouldn't be having any trouble with them.  Ah, here we go.  They're about to fight squadron four."

          The two men watched silently as bullets rained down on the invaders.  Avalanche pulled back for a few seconds and then charged the thick of the ambush.  There was bloody chaos for a few seconds, and then Avalanche had broken through, the white shirted girl with suspenders tossing a bomb back over her shoulder that collapsed the wall, preventing the squadron's survivors from following them.  

          "Ahh."  Falstor leaned back, crossing his long legs as he clasped his hands in mock applause.  "They've just got the endurance and guts to force their way through, regardless of the odds.  No great intelligence or secret weapon, just the ability to keep going despite opposition and injuries that would cause others to hesitate or give up.  I wonder how they came by that much confidence and endurance though.  It's usually only found in people with many more hours of battle experience than I expected them to have."   His eyes narrowed.  "If they have had that much experience, how come no member of Avalanche has ever been killed?  The possibility of an entire group surviving that much combat is almost non-existent.  His influence, perhaps?"  The general glanced speculatively at the monitor showing the spiky haired blond, still unconscious and unaware that his friends were risking their lives to rescue him.  "Perhaps.  In any case, place the entire complex on red alert, and prepare for an invasion.  It looks like they might actually make it inside."

          "Yes sir."  Calson breathed a sigh of relief.  Had it been him, they would have been on alert ever since the invaders arrived.  Of course, Falstor's ability to foretell the outcomes of battles was the reason he was a general, and Calson was only a lieutenant.

          "Shit!"  Cid wiped blood off his forehead, cursing even more as the effort off talking robbed him of the air he was gasping in.  "We gotta get out of this maze, people.  This is a bloody trap!"

          "Not. . . without. . . Cloud.  . ."  Tifa murmured, slouched against a wall for a few precious moments of rest before the black-garbed soldiers found them again, trying to get up the gumption to keep going despite her exhaustion.  But if they weren't going to survive, maybe they should retreat.  It wouldn't do Cloud any good if they all died. . 

          "You got that right, Tifa," Barrett found the energy to grin at her from somewhere.  "Spike head's in here somewhere, and we're gonna get him out.  That's what AVALANCH does, right?"

          "I hate to say this, but how?"  Red asked.  "They're obviously expecting us, and we're out numbered rather significantly."

          "The same way we always do it," Barrett pushed off from the wall, face set with a fierce smile of determination.  "We blow them all to hell."  He got a curious look on his face as he looked around them.  "Hey, Yuffie?"  

          "Yeah?"  The girl asked listlessly, collapsed on the cool stone floor.  Barrett's lip twisted in pity.  She obviously hadn't been keeping up on her warrior skills ever since she decided she wanted to be a proper lady, and it was showing.  But they needed her now. . .

          "If I blow a hole in the roof, can you get up there by yourself?  And then find something to tie a rope onto so the rest of us can get up there?"

          Yuffie perked up in interest, studying the nondescript walls.  The ceiling was a good fifteen feet up, and there weren't any handholds, but. . .  "If I can stand on your shoulders, I think I can make it.

          "Got ya.  Everyone stand back.. ."  Barrett raised his gun arm as everyone scrambled tiredly out of the way.  A blast of yellow light roared out of it, the backlash almost knocking him over despite his bulk. The rock of the ceiling evaporated and tore apart in a cascade of dust and stones.  

          "Gotta. . .  get going."  Barrett murmured, coughing in the dust and rubbing his eyes to get the grit out of them.  "They'll know where we are now. . . Yuffie?"

          "Yeah?"  The girl stumbled out of the cloud of dust.  "All right, don't move. . ."  She backed up a step and tensed.

          "Wha. . ."  Barrett opened his mouth to ask what she was doing, and then she was sprinting forwards, leaping, her hands on his shoulders providing the momentum to push her up until she crouched for a moment atop his head, ignoring his grunt, and then she leaped again, flipping up to disappear into the dust and shards of stone still hanging in the air above them.

          "Ow. . ."  Barrett grumbled, rubbing his cranium where one of her feet had pushed off from.  A rope tumbled down and hit him on the same place. Yuffie's laughter drifted down. 

          "You guys coming or not?"

          Calson winced as the ceiling came down, a large stone smashing the security camera and turning the monitor into static.  

          "They're going onto the roof. . ."  General Falstor murmured.  "Intelligent of them.  They'll be inside the main complex in a minute or two.  We didn't put any guards on the roof, so there's only the few men manning the upper walls who could shoot at them. All right, cancel the red alert and tell the men to only oppose Avalanche if they start heading towards Nibro's weapon.  Empty the corridors everywhere else."

          "Sir??"

          "If they're looking for their commander, they'll find their way to his cell eventually.  Considering his unknown but no doubt exceptional skills, I had that room double reinforced with titanium.  They won't be able to blast down the walls with the type of weaponry they've got, and the door is unopenable except from the outside. Once they're inside, all we have to do is shut the door and flood the room with gas.  There's no escape.  I don't want to risk our men's lives unless it's absolutely necessary."

          Calstor smiled and saluted.  _This_ was the General he admired so much.  "With pleasure, sir,"  he replied, and turned to the intercom to begin giving orders.

          The difference between the main building and the labyrinth was almost comical.  Instead of cold, dimly lit stone hallways, they walked on carpet under industrial strength florescent bulbs, and the white walls were plastered with posters every few feet describing everything from how evil Reeve was to the correct way to stretch before exercise.  And it was absolutely empty, except a few guard robots they had easily dispatched.

          "Where the fuck are they?"  Cid murmured, wide eyed as he gripped his spear with sweaty palms, pulse thudding as he waited for the attack they were all sure would come in just a second.

          "No kidding,"  Yuffie muttered.  "Could they still think that we're in the labyrinth?"

          "After all the noise we made, and the big hole in the roof, I doubt there's much chance of that," Tifa replied, glancing around.  

          "I don't like it."  Red's fire tipped tail twitched nervously.

"None of us do,"  Tifa smiled back at the large cat reassuringly, although to be honest, she wished someone would reassure her instead.  Ok, to be absolutely honest, the person she wanted there to reassure her was Cloud, but she'd have him back soon, she was sure.  "So where do we go from here?"

"Down."  Yuffie put in promptly.  Everyone blinked at her.

"Prisons are always in the basement, cuz the only way out is up the stairs then, and it's easy to block those off,"  she explained, looking at them like they were stupid. 

"The detention cells in the Shinra building were upstairs. . ."  Barrett muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, well, the Shinra building was so tall that you couldn't escape out a window, so putting it up top was just as effective as putting it underground."  Yuffie rolled her eyes.  "This place is only what, five stories at the most?  He'll be underground."

"That sounds logical. . ."  Red nodded thoughtfully.

"I don't have any better plan."  Tifa acknowledged, feeling odd about taking advice from a mildly untrustworthy girl half her age.

"Right then," Cid thumped his spear on the floor for emphasis, smoke curling out of his ever-present cigar.  Tifa idly wondered how he had kept it lit and between his lips through all the fighting.  "Down we go!"

Yuffie was right, surprise, surprise, for it wasn't long before they found themselves in a block of high security cells.  But they were all empty, or full of scientific equipment.  Finally they re-gathered in the main room, staring in dismay at all the locked corridors leading off from it.

"If he isn't here, then . . ."  Barrett complained dejectedly.  "This complex is too dang huge, we'll never find 'em."

Red had been sniffing the floor, and suddenly looked up triumphantly.  "Cloud was here!"  He panted, grinning.  "And they took him through that door that looks like a closet!"

          "Yes!"  Cid raised his spear in triumph.  "We got him now.  Come on!"  He hurried over and began yanking on the door.  "Dang, it's locked.  What are you idiots all hesitating for?  Come help me!"

          "There hasn't been any opposition,"  Vincent said quietly from the shadows, and everyone jumped, having almost forgotten he was with them.  "It can't be because they're too stupid to find us.  That labyrinth was a work of genius. They probably know where we're going, and have the majority of their forces waiting with Cloud."

          Everyone was silent, stomachs twisting as they pondered that.

          "Fuck that."  Cid said.  "We've come this far.  We'll just barrel our way through like we always do."

          "What about the weapon?" Tifa asked.  "It's taken us way too long to get this far.  If he wants to use it, he's had the time."

          "Who's he gonna use it on?" Cid protested.  "We're all inside his complex, he can't use it on us.  And everyone knows that Avalanche is separate from Shinra, he ain't gonna attack Midgar to punish us.  He might attack Midgar later to take over from Reeve, but he'll wait until he's completely ready; he won't act just because we're here.  There'd be no point to it, except as a threat to make us surrender, but he'd give us warning first then."

          "Unless he thinks that Reeve will attack now that it's confirmed that this is where the bad guys are."  Barrett suggested.

          "Wutai. . ."  Yuffie breathed wide-eyed.  "If he knows I'm helping you. . ."

          "This is a waste of time!"  Red snapped, the fire at the end of his tail flaring with irritation.  "We haven't seen any sign of the weapon, so we can't dismantle it at the moment.  We do know where Cloud is though.  Let's get him, and then go searching for the weapon.  That means that our opposition is halved here as well; they'll have guards and traps both surrounding Cloud and surrounding the weapon, so there'll be less at each location.  Let's just hurry and accomplish our mission and get out!  Hesitating never accomplishes anything!"

          "Furball's got a point."  Cid muttered thoughtfully around his cigarette.

          "Indeed."  Vincent replied.

          "Then let's get the hell going!" Barrett bellowed and opened fire on the door.  The door exploded in a shower of  melted metal, and they entered a featureless hall cautiously.  There was an airlock at the other end, wide open.

          "An invitation. . ."  Vincent murmured.

          "The hall looks like a great place for an ambush." Barrett acknowledged.

          "Hesitation accomplishes nothing."  Tifa took a deep breath and darted down the hallway.

          "Tifa!"  Barrett yelled, and sprinted after her, everyone else barely a step behind.

Tifa closed her eyes, her feet pounding down the hall in machine-like precision guaranteed to carry her as fast as her exhausted body could go.  Blood throbbed in her chest as she expected to feel a bullet enter her pale skin at any moment.  But the hallway never changed, and in a few seconds she had reached the airlock at the far end.  She skidded to a stop just inside the door.  

"Cloud. . ."  Her beloved's face was barely visible through a Plexiglas window in some sort of machine full of liquid that reminded her uncomfortably of the cages where Hojo grew monsters in the Nibelheim reactor.  She hurried to his side and began to search for some way to open it up. The others spread out behind her, weapons ready for any sort of attack.  Tifa found the control release and almost bruised her fingers in her hurry to hit it.  A thirty second countdown started.  The liquid slowly began to drain from around Cloud's slackly unconscious face, gurgling as it flowed into the rubber tubes that were scattered all over the floor.  He stirred slightly, unfocused eyes opening slowly.  

29, 28, 27. .

          CRASH!!

The airlock slammed shut, the bolts engaging with a mechanical whine.  

          "Shit!!"  Barrett opened fire on it without being asked.

          23, 22, 21, 20. . . 

          "The door's too strong!"  Red yelled.  "Try the walls!"

          Barrett obeyed, spraying the ceiling, walls and floors with his highest gauge explosive bullets.  They didn't even dent the metal.  "I'm out of ammo except for the small stuff for the machine gun. Use your bombs Tifa!"

          17, 16. . .

          Something hissed quietly, and an odd smell wafted through the air.  Tifa pulled herself away from Cloud and grabbed a fire fang bomb, the strongest she had left.  She threw it at the wall near the airlock.

          "Shit!  They're poisoning the air through the ventilation." Cid yelled

          "Can we escape through the ventilation?"  Red asked quickly.

          The fire fang exploded with as little effect as Barrett's bullets.  

          "Impossible."  Vincent had already knelt down by a vent.  They are far too small, and full of lasers, besides the gas."  He began to cough and stumbled away, falling to his knees.  Cloud's eyes focused.  

"Tifa. . .?" His mouth moved, but she couldn't hear him through the steel walls of his cage.  He began to bang on the walls, desperately trying to get out.  There concentration of gas in the room had increased till it was visible as a swirling orange fog.  Everyone was coughing.  Tifa grasped her throat and her eyes rolled back as she collapsed to the floor.  Cid fell next.

13, 12, 11. . .  Everyone was on the

ground, unmoving.

Cloud screamed in anguish, his hands bleeding as he attacked the featureless walls confining him.

          10, 9, . . .  The numbers suddenly disappeared.  'Operation Cancelled Authorization of General Falstor' flashed on the screen.  The liquid stopped draining, and puddled slimy and cold around his feet.

          "Tifa!"  Cloud screamed in frustration, beating at the glass separating them, but she didn't move.  The concentration of gas kept increasing.

          "Mission accomplished."  Calson reported quietly, pride vying with awe at how easily his commander had captured such powerful opponents.

          "Naturally," General Falstor leaned back in his chair and relaxed.  "Drug the clone again.  I don't want him damaging himself too badly."

          Calson called up the appropriate controls on his computer.  He frowned.  "The drugs that woke him up have severe and generally fatal reactions with all types of sedatives.  Of course, not being human, it may not react the same in his system, but. . ."

          "It's not worth the risk."  Falstor waved his hand dismissively.  "Send an electric current through the walls and shock him into unconsciousness.  The scientists have already assured me that his system is capable of recovering from burns and nerve damage with incredible rapidity."

          "Yes sir."

          On the screen, Cloud convulsed and slumped against the wall, mouth open in a soundless scream as the energy overran his body.

"TITAN."

          The quiet voice, somehow echoed through the entire complex, emotionless like a piece of metal buried under snow, ready to freeze anything alive that touched it.  Soldiers who had been bandaging wounds or celebrating their victory fell silent and shivered, glancing around uncomfortably for the source of the words.  Even General Falstor frowned.  

Calson blinked.  Had he actually heard it?  There was something familiar about the voice. . .

          The entire southern wall of the complex exploded in a agonized roar as the ground buckled upward.    The radio erupted with static and the screams of men caught under the fallen rock.  Calson grabbed his desk as the room shook warningly.  Cracks shot up the walls. Ceiling tiles crashed to the floor and shattered, white dust filling the air.

A sick feeling settled in Calson's stomach as he realized that the earthquake's epicenter was directly above the clone's prison.  A quick check of the monitors showed that the titanium ceiling there had been torn off, sunlight filtering through the heavy dust.

          "Who. . ."  Falstor whispered, uncharacteristically wide eyed in shock.  "Even a fully mastered Titan summon couldn't do half that damage."

          "The clone. . ."  Calson whispered, suddenly feeling that this whole plan had been a very very bad idea.  After all, this was the creature who had destroyed Shinra at its height.  How could a few pitiful remnants of the army hope to stand against it?

          "Impossible,"  Falstor snapped, recovering a bit of his poise.  "We made sure he didn't have any materia. . ."

          On the monitors, a tall silhouette dropped to the floor, barely visible in the dust and poison filled atmosphere of the room.  Calson stared, something about the blurry figure tickling the back of his mind.  Surely the man wasn't _hovering_.  He fiddled with the security camera controls, trying to get a better view.

"WIND."     

          The dusty orange gas exploded away from the man in a boiling, chaotic mass, as if some instinct existed in even such an inanimate object to flee the man's presence.  When the walls impeded its path, it boiled upward in a rush to escape into the atmosphere.  The now clear air calmed, revealing the figure.

          Tall, impossibly tall.  Silver hair that didn't belong on anything human, hanging loose to the man's waist.  Glowing green eyes, narrowed in concentration, missing nothing.  _Sephiroth_.

          Behind him Calson could hear Falstor whisper something that sounded suspiciously like, "My General. . ."  in a choked, disbelieving voice, but Calson barely acknowledged it, all his attention on the man in the monitor screen before him.

          Sephiroth slowly floated to the ground, his hair and black leather coat billowing around him.  A tiny cloud of dust puffed up around the bottom of his coat to mark his landing.  He slowly lifted his right arm and stared intently at his palm.  The skin bulged.  A slit opened, parting to reveal a narrow blade that slid out as if it had been sheathed in the muscle of his forearm, like a cat's claw that emerges when it flexes its paws.  The blade grew till it stretched as long as Sephiroth was tall, a deadly, shining curve like the sliver of silver moon visible seconds after a lunar eclipse.  The skin twisted around the blade, crawling up the metal with stomach churning eagerness till it formed a hilt and guard.  It separated from Sephiroth's palm, and he closed his hand around it in satisfaction.  

The man picked his way among the bodies scattered around the floor with inhuman grace, ignoring their slight movements as the clean air began to revive them, heading towards the machine-cage Cloud slumped inside.  The young man hadn't even registered the earthquake or Sephiroth's arrival, barely conscious due to the electric shock.  Sephiroth touched Plexiglas window, an odd expression on his face.  He stepped back and slashed Masamune at the cage, the layers of steel parting like fragile flesh, viscous liquid spilling out to wash over the floor.  He flicked the slime off his sword and caught Cloud's limp body with his free hand as the young man fell forward, deprived of the walls that had been holding him upright.  Green eyes stared curiously at the limp body slumped over his arm.  He ran the hand holding Masamune through the spiky golden hair in an oddly possessive manner, the back of his hand brushing across Cloud's forehead and cheek gently.  He smiled coldly and looked up, directly at the security cameras as if directly addressing the watchers.  His eyes burned: arrogant, deadly, amused.

          "Cloud is mine."  The voice was quieter than when he had summoned Titan and the Wind, but it still carried clearly, despite the walls and distance between him and those he addressed.  "Mine to control, mine to imprison, mine to hurt.  He is as much a part of me, as this sword or the arm the wields it.  He is me.  Admittedly he is flawed and often acts against my desires, but in that he is like a limb with damaged nerves that twitches without conscious control.  I and I alone have the right and responsibility to cure him of it.  I and I alone will punish him for it.  Actions against him are actions against me, and I will destroy those who oppose me.  So do not."  Sephiroth slung Cloud over one shoulder, turning away as if, warning given, he had no further interest in them.  "LEVITATION."  His feet slowly lifted from the ground, and he floated upward, towards the hole in the ceiling and the empty skies beyond.

          ". . . FIRE . . .Level  THREE!!"  A huge ball of flame slammed into Sephiroth's chest, causing him to drop Cloud.  Tifa tottered to her feet.  "You. . . aren't . . .taking. . .Cloud!"  she gasped.  On the ground, Cloud frowned confusedly and reached up to touch his forehead, which had thudded against a wall.  The rest of Avalanche was grimly trying to stand.    

"LEVANTHIAN!"  Yuffie yelled desperately, holding the red materia orb high even though she still lay on the ground.  The giant water dragon appeared, sending a wave of high pressure water at Sephiroth.  

          "REFLECT ALL," Red whispered, coughing up blood as he sat up.  The golden shield shimmered around Avalanche, reflecting any magical attack Sephiroth tried.  They were carrying enough healing potions that it didn't matter that the shield would reflect the healing spells they usually used during battle.

          Sephiroth turned, smiling distantly.  "I had planned on waiting to kill you, waiting till he was more aware and could suffer from your deaths, but perhaps I shall at least hurt you now."  His sword began to glow with swirls of purple.  "I've been thinking a lot since we last met.  I relied too heavily on raw power then, not bothering with tactics since I didn't think you could possibly survive long enough against it to damage me.  A mistake I intend to correct."  The purple brightened.  "My mother- perhaps I should no longer call her that, now that I know I had a human mother as well-" he mused, "Jenova is not some new odd species from outer space.  She is the living incarnation of the antithesis of the planet's Mako power.  As such, Jenova energy cancels Mako energy."  He lazily drew Masamune along the curved space that was the outer edge of the shield, leaving a line of sparks.  He pressed a little deeper, and the shield shattered with a flash of purple-gold light.  "With proper use, my Jenova powers will negate any materia attacks you try, but I can attack you with both, and you have no defense without Cloud."

          "My general. .  ."  The voice was barely above a whisper.  "Why didn't you tell me you lived?"   

          Calson finally managed to jerk his attention away from the monitor to stare at General Falstor in shock.  His commander ignored his questioning gaze, eyes glued to the screen, pleading in a shocked monotone.  "I was always loyal to you, even when you turned against Shinra.  I reorganized the troops so only the most incompetent were in your path to oppose you.  I gave Hojo the key code to the reactor control room so he could send you the power you needed.  I was sure you'd save us, save us from the corrupt, money-hungry dynasty Shinra had become, save us from the Meteor coming to destroy us, save us from the huge monsters we called WEAPONS.  And sure enough, Shinra fell, power from your location repelled the Meteor, and the WEAPONS disappeared.  But you disappeared too, leaving those bastards in Avalanche to take the credit, leaving that incompetent Reeve to destroy everything we'd fought for.  Perhaps you thought that your role was done, that you had done enough.  But it all fell apart!  Didn't you care?  And now this. . ."

          Lt. Calson turned away, breathing hard to calm himself down.  He was disturbed to notice that his hands were shaking.

          Avalanche froze in shock as their highest level shield broke easily under Sephiroth's sword.  Barrett lifted his gun arm and began to pepper Sephiroth's body with machine gun bullets, but the silver haired man only laughed and began to walk towards them, his body healing almost as soon as the injuries were made.  

          "Sephiroth?. . ."  Cloud murmured tiredly, trying to push himself to a sitting position.  "Leave them alone.  I'm over here. . .  Gonna attack you."

          Sephiroth glanced back at him, smiling coldly.  "Don't bother hurrying things, failure.  I'll come play with you soon."

          "ODIN."  Vincent called softly from the shadows.  The silver blade, half hidden in darkness, half glimmering with lunar light, slashed through the barrier between dimensions, tearing space-time in the area where Sephiroth stood.  The leather and steel wrapping his left arm parted.  Blood dribbled down to drip from his hand.  

Sephiroth turned back to face Avalanche, green eyes narrowed in anger, the lazy smile disappearing to be replaced by an ugly glare.  He raised his arm slowly to lick the crimson liquid off his palm.  "Stupid of you, dead man, for I will destroy you now.  Destroy you for the power you possess but are too cowardly to learn to use.  And because you are as much an abomination as I, I will destroy you without wasting time playing games!"  He suddenly closed his bloody hand into a fist.  "NEO BAHUMUT."

         Tifa's eyes widened. Neo Bahumut was the strongest summon.  It killed almost any opponent instantly.  And when you considered that every time Sephiroth used a spell it was two to three times stronger than when anyone else used it. . .  She flung herself at Vincent, trying to knock him out of the path of the beam of energy that shot down from outer space.  

          She wasn't quite fast enough.  They were out of the direct line of fire, but the explosion as the energy pounded into the ground created a strong enough wind to throw them into the air.  Vincent careened into Cid and they both fell to the ground.  Tifa slammed into the steel wall with a brutal crack that tore through her friend's hearts, and then fell to lay still.

          "Tifa!!!!!"  Cloud screamed, weakly reaching towards her from where he lay limply on the floor.

          "Hmm?   I didn't think you were conscious enough to be paying attention."  Sephiroth cocked an eyebrow at him.  "How delightful.  I truly didn't intend to kill her until you were awake enough for the pain of your lover's death to begin to break  you.  I'm glad my miscalculation didn't destroy things."  

          "Tifa. . ."  Cloud closed his eyes tightly, pushing himself to his feet.  He looked too ill to even be alive, his face pale with pain, angry red welts and bloody blisters covering any part of his skin that had been in contact with the walls of his cage.  Most of them were already half healed and peeling.  "Why, Sephiroth?  Why are you here?  What are you planning?  Why are you still alive?"

          "Asking questions to play for time while your body heals?"  One elegant silver eyebrow arched upward in cold amusement.  "It's useless; it will take hours for those injuries to heal."  He shrugged.  "But I am in no hurry, so I will answer."  He strolled over to kneel down in front of Cloud, grasping the small man's blistered chin and tilting it upward so Cloud was forced to look at him.  Sephiroth smiled.  "I'm here for you.  Because you are powerful, and I intend to make you learn that you are a part of me till it is seared into your soul and you no longer comprehend the idea of attacking me." His voice whispered in the air, but echoes screamed against the walls of Cloud's mind, demanding entrance.  "After that," a steel clad shoulder shrugged,  "you and I will ensure that the world can no longer oppose me.  My victory is inevitable, foolish boy.  I am immortal; I am eternal.  Neither you nor the entire world can destroy me."

          "Nothing is eternal," Cloud whispered.  "Not you, not even this planet.  Fate's shears are too sharp."

          "Haven't you figured it out yet?  I _am_ her shears.  Enough talk." His blade began to sink into his palm, reabsorbing into his flesh.  "If none of you have the will to fight anymore, then I have no purpose here." 

          Sephiroth deliberately turned his back on the shell-shocked Avalanche members who were desperately using every magic they had to try and reincarnate Tifa.  He stood, looking down at Cloud, still smiling.  Then he punched Cloud in the stomach.  The shorter man collapsed around his fist, the breath driven from his lungs and his still weak muscles going limp.  Sephiroth scooped him up and flung him over his shoulder like a hunter might carry a dead carcass.  "LEVITATION."

          The wind began to swirl around him again and he rose into the sky, Cloud limply carried along as a splash of pale skin and golden hair against Sephiroth's black and silver.

         Cloud felt himself being lifted up into the sky.  He tried to fight, to kick his captor or bite him or anything, but none of his muscles would respond, the nerves still damaged by the electric shock.  _Tifa. . ._  He thought of the beautiful, strong willed girl, remembering her blush when she said they were, "just friends."  He'd never get the chance to disprove that now, even if they managed to resurrect her.  He suspected they would; she was strong, and wearing a lot of magical aids, and they had been able to get to her almost immediately after she had been injured, which always helped.  Gods, he hoped they would.  Of course, if Sephiroth succeeded in taking over the world, she was probably better off dead.  So, he'd just have to make sure that didn't happen, wouldn't he?  Whatever the cost. . .  If he was going to do it, he'd better do it now though, while Sephiroth was busy controlling the levitation spell and couldn't spare the energy to listen in on Cloud's thoughts.  He let himself relax.  He couldn't exactly say it had been a wonderful life, but the last few years had certainly made up for the bad times before, even if they had been very very bad times.  He realized with surprise that he didn't feel cheated at dying now.  He had done good things with his life, he felt like his existence had had a purpose and been worthwhile.  He had friends who cared about him and a woman he loved.  He had known happiness.  Cloud closed his eyes and smiled. 

          "SUICIDE," he whispered.

          Hojo had infused both his and Sephiroth's bodies with mako drained from hundreds of materia.  That sea of energy throbbing through their bodies was what made their magic so much more powerful than any normal human's.  Due to Hojo's training, Sephiroth could access that energy at will, summoning it in whatever form he needed without having to find the correct type of materia orb to focus it through.  Cloud normally used materia, having trained himself, and therefore lacking much of the knowledge Sephiroth possessed.  But he had called on his internal mako power once before.  It had been when Sephiroth had summoned him, right after Reeve had told them about Nibro's weapon.  He had lit the campfire without fire materia.  Sephiroth had been deep in Cloud's mind at that point, and probably Cloud had unconsciously absorbed the skill from him.  In any case, he thought he knew how to work it now, or at least how to work a simple spell like this one.  It wasn't summoning power from another dimension of reality like Fire or a demi-god summon.  All the energy it used came from him.

          With a sudden rush, he felt the spell start.  The mako inside him began to congeal, drawing together into a dense mass in preparation for use.  As the raw mako drained away, the spell began drawing on the life energy that was a purified form of Mako, taking the energy that fed his lungs and heart.  Cloud smiled slightly, sadly, as the familiar cold darkness of unconsciousness enveloped him.  _I hope you're alive, Tifa._

          Tifa coughed and Barrett hugged her gently in his strong arms.  

          "Cloud. . ?"  She whispered.  Barrett shook his head sadly, his heart twisting at the sudden horror in her eyes. 

          An explosion rocked the sky and everyone jerked, staring up at the fiery maelstrom in the direction Sephiroth had flown with Cloud.  A black figure fell from the heart of the glow, growing in size as it rapidly approached the ground.

          "It's Sephiroth!  And he's still carrying Cloud," Red gasped, his eyes being sharper than anyone else's.

          "If we hurry, we might be able to save Cloud," Vincent pointed out.  He knelt down by Tifa, who was struggling to move, but still too weak.  "May I carry you there?" 

          "Yes, please," she whispered in relief.  He scooped her up, careful to avoid cutting her skin with the knives on the end of his mechanical arm.

          "What the hell are we waiting for?"  Cid whooped.  "Let's get outa here!"

"Sir?" Calson asked hesitantly.  "They're escaping.  Do you want me to stop them?"

          His commander glanced at him and noticed how upset he was.  Falstor smiled thinly.  "Don't bother.  We don't have the capability of going against either Sephiroth or Cloud.  While it's true that they might be injured from their fall, it's equally likely that they could still slaughter our men.  It would be a waste of life."

          "Yes sir."  Calson swallowed and moved his hand away from the intercom.  

          "I apologize for disturbing you with my mumblings earlier.  I was just surprised."

          "Yes, sir."

          Falstor snorted and looked back at the displays.  "Sephiroth was a genius.  If you haven't met him, you won't understand, but anyone who did believed that he could do anything.  He was our God.  Men who served under him during the Wutai wars worshipped him.  He'd sacrifice men without qualms to win, but overall, his command had over three fourths less casualties than the rest of the military.  He convinced people to do things that should have been humanly impossible, and then they succeeded.  I have only met one person in my life who I believe to be my superior, and that was him."

          "Are you going to offer us to his command, sir?"

          Falstor shook his head.  "No, he would have asked for it if he wanted it."

          "He seemed rather. . ."  Lt. Calstor searched for the right word, ". . . angry at us.  If you wish to serve him, perhaps we should discard our current plan."

          "He didn't want us keeping the boy, that is true.  That's logical; the boy is his clone.  His feelings of personal offense are perfectly logical.  Moreover, the boy is a deadly weapon.  Perhaps he did not think that we have the skill and knowledge necessary to wield him without destroying ourselves."  The general shrugged.  "Perhaps he is correct.  But he didn't mention anything about Nibro's rocket.  I assume that means that he approves."

          "_If_ he knew about the rocket, sir."

          "It's General Sephiroth.  He probably knows what you ate for breakfast."  Falstor waved it off.

          "Yes, sir."

          General Falstor sighed and stared at the wall.  "We'll go forward as planned.  In fact, switch all available resources to building the rocket.  Once Avalanche gets back to Midgar, Reeve is going to send some sort of force against us.  We have to have it finished by then.  We have to be able to hold Midgar hostage for his surrender."

          It took Avalanche about ten minutes to exit the complex it had taken them two hours to enter.

          "Where's all the bad guys. . ."  Yuffie muttered, glancing around unhappily.

          "Who gives a damn!"  Cid snapped.  "Just as long as they ain't in our way."

          "What about the weapon?"  She asked.  "We just gonna leave it here?"

          "The chance of negating Sephiroth's danger while he's weak is more important, and I think we can safely assume that if he was falling from the sky like that, something is wrong with hi," Red said quietly but firmly, eyes narrowed with battle fury. 

"Yeah, think about it,"  Barrett put in.  "What's more dangerous, Sephiroth, or a mere human with a bomb that probably doesn't work?"

          ". . ."  Yuffie shook her head uncomfortably.

          "That's probably where all the soldiers are,"  Red pointed out.  "They withdrew to guard it.  We're all injured and tired, and they're fully prepared for us now.  We wouldn't have a chance.  Our best option now is to get back and raise an army as quickly as possible."

          "We might be able to fight through. . ." Yuffie's shoulder's slumped.   "We couldn't, could we.  But if he decides to attack Wutai with it. . ."

          "It probably doesn't work,"  Tifa whispered hoarsely from where she was huddled in Vincent's arms.  "And I don't think he'll attack anywhere till he's had time to give us demands of some sort.  It'd be a waste otherwise."

          "I hope you're right. . ."

          The sun was bright after the electric lighting inside the complex.  Sephiroth and Cloud lay in bloody heaps about twenty feet from each other, each enveloped in a purple glow.

          "Jenova. . ."  Vincent murmured.  "Jenova protected them.  They're still alive."

"I can take care of that,"  Cid replied, and strode boldly over to Sephiroth.  He swung his spear down, slicing off Sephiroth's head.  The body shimmered with a red light and faded away into nothingness.  "That's that," he said in satisfaction.  "Someone start healing Cloud and then pick him up and let's get going.  We got a lot to do."         

Everyone stared at him.  "What?"

          "You killed Sephiroth. . ."  Barrett shook his head  unbelievingly.

          "Yesss, . .  that was what we were here to do, wasn't it?"

          "I think he is surprised that it ended this quickly," Red explained.  "It does seem rather odd that we fought so long for such an non-flashy ending."

          Cid looked at them and shook his head in disgust.  "His body was reabsorbed into the life stream.  That means he's dead, and no magic's gonna heal him. You guys just can't believe that I was the one to do it.  Well, live with it.  I am just that good.  Now stop staring and get going."  

          Vincent had already set Tifa down and started casting Cure on Cloud's injuries.  "I think he is stable enough to move.  The physical injuries are easily fixable by magic."

          "The physical injuries?"

          "Yes. . . I'm sensing something odd from him.  Normally Cloud is difficult for me to be near, as the Jenova in me is repulsed the amount of Mako in his body, even as it is attracted to the Jenova in him.  But now I don't feel any repulsion at all.  Quite the opposite, actually.  It's as if the mako is gone, and only Jenova remains.  And normally he'd be awake after I healed him to this extent."

          "That don't sound like a good thing.  Cloud being taken over by Jenova. . ."  Barrett shook his head slowly.  "Maybe we should. . ."

          "I don't care!  We can deal with that once we get somewhere safe.  Come on guys!"  Yuffie stamped her foot in irritation.  

          "She's right, we should get going. You can ride me, Tifa."  Red offered, laying down so she could get on.  "You still look to weak to walk on your own."

          "Thanks.  You'll take Cloud, Vincent?"

          The tall man nodded, scooping the injured man up and carefully laying him over his shoulder in an odd imitation of how Sephiroth had carried him.  

****************************************

AUTHOR'S NOTES (warning: they're long.  It was a long chapter)

          Don't worry, Seph isn't dead. . . at least not permanently. . .

Deus et machina was fun to play with in this chapter!  Me bad, sorry.  Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't rename this story God in the Machine. . . you'll figure out why later. 

Guess what?  The Turks finally get involved next chapter!!  Hip Hip Hooray!!!!  Well, either the next chapter or the one after that.  This is the same timeline as my story Entering the Turks, which I need to work on some more at some  point. (sweat drop)  But you don't have to read that one first.  

Yes, I'm inventing materia attacks just because it's fun and because I'm too lazy to go look some of them up.  And I invented the idea of Jenova canceling Materia energy - Materia attacks work just fine against Jenova attacks in the game.  It seems to be a common idea in fanfic though-um, that is to say, I think I saw it a couple of places that I can't find now.  The idea of the sword coming out of Sephiroth's hand is a 100% copy of Kishu Arashi's sword in the manga X by CLAMP.  I just couldn't figure out how else to give Seph his sword back, and Seph without Masamune just does not work.  Oh, and I'm having some issues with trying to remember how to spell the original character's names.  I think I have it all corrected, but if there are some mistakes, please forgive me. 

I just realized there are more people to give credit to for inspiration.  Falstor's and Calson's personalities have a lot in common with Grand Admiral Thrawn's and Captain Pellon's in Timothy Zahn's Star Wars novels.  And in hindsight, I'm sure I got the names Falstor and Allen from Folkin and Allen in Escaflone, for all that my characters are pretty dissimilar from their namesakes in personality.  

I also just realized how long I worked on this today.  Looking at it from number of pages per hour, I write essays for school just about two times faster than I write fiction.  Gulp.  I think it's supposed to be the other way around. . .  I would also like to announce that this was the hardest chapter to write of the entire dang story so far.  But it's done!  See ya all in the next chapter!

Inarae

ginabrae@aol.com

********************************************


	8. CH 7: GATHERING FORCES

TO DEFINE EVIL

CHAPTER SEVEN: GATHERING FORCES or WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

By the way, I love C&C on my writing.  A quick word will make me happy, but 

if you want to spend the time telling me what I should change, or what you liked best, I'd be delighted!  Thanks 

for reading.

****************************************************************

CHAPTER SEVEN: GATHERING FORCES or WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

    Cloud woke up to a throbbing headache and the sound of murmured voices.  He was laying on a mattress on the floor, bandages wrapped loosely over much of his body.  He sensed that someone was sitting beside him, but couldn't summon the energy to move his head and look, afraid it would make the pain in his head worse.  Still, he got the impression of something red. Cloud reached out a hand and touched a sheet of soft leather, thick and well worn, pooled on the floor.

    "Vincent?"  His voice was barely more than a breath, but the other man heard him.  "Where. . .?"

    "We're in Wutai.  Yuffie's gathering her army."

    "Not. . . enough . . . gotta. . ."  Cloud's voice disappeared in a fit of coughing.

    Vincent paused.  Cloud sensed him get up and walk away.  A second later he heard a door slide open.  "Barret?  Red?" Vincent called quietly. "Cloud's awake and has something important to tell us.  Would you gather the others?"   

    "What?"

    "Sure, I'll get them."  Heavy footsteps pounded off at a run.

    Satisfied that the others were going to come, Vincent came back and knelt beside Cloud, helping him to a sitting position and stacking some pillows for him to lean against.  Cloud nodded his gratitude.

    Tifa hurried in, followed by the others.  

    She hesitated just inside the door. 

    "Cloud. . ."

    "Hey, let us in!"  Yuffie elbowed her aside and darted into the room, clad in the stark black and gold uniform of the Wutai military like she had been ever since they returned from the monastery.  The others piled in after her.

    "Good to see ya up, kid."  Barrett grinned.

    "How come your hair is still spiky even after you've been asleep for four days?"  The pilot of the Highwind grumbled around his cigarette, reaching up to scratch at his moderately hairless head.

    "What did you want to tell us?  Vincent gave the impression that it was very important," Red commented, cutting through the chatter.  Cloud nodded, licking his lips as he tried to talk.  Dang but his throat was dry.  Logical if he'd been asleep for four days, but his lungs hurt with each breath also, and he wasn't sure that his jaw wouldn't fall off it he opened it.  He licked his lips and gave it a try anyhow.

    "Danger. . . Stop. . . Sephiroth. . ."

    "Aw, fuck, you had me worried there for a minute,"  Cid laughed, wiping the sweat off his brown and removing his hand from the spear where he'd unconsciously placed it when Cloud said, "Danger."  "Monster-boy's dead.  The permanent, lacking a head, and corpse dissolving into the lifestream type of dead."  He grinned broadly.  "I killed him."

    Cloud smiled slightly at the other man's bragging, but shook his head, the effort making him wince with pain.  "He'll return." He hesitated, trying to get enough air to talk more.  "Saw it. . . in his mind. . . as fell."

    Just before the darkness of unconsciousness had enveloped him completely, the sense of falling, of terror, of a voice. . .

_"No. . .it can't be. . . please, not again. . .  I can't, not again. . .  Please don't. . .  I'll do anything you want, just don't let them kill me again . . . It hurts to die. . .  Please. . ."_

    Cloud shook off the memory of Sephiroth's pleading voice and focused on his friends.  "Lifestream. . .won't accept him. . . The Jenova contamination would damage it. . ."  he paused, closing his eyes.  Somehow, the longer he was awake, the better he felt. Maybe because the human spirit was made of lifestream energy and mako, and when he was awake his consciousness forced down the Jenova energy that kept him from drawing healing mako from the planet.  Barett set Tifa down next to him, and she covered one of his large calloused hands in her tiny one.  He opened his eyes and smiled at her, sharing a moment of relief.  "The lifestream recreates his body, then tosses him out again."

    "What??!!"  Yuffie yelped.  "You mean, no matter how many times we kill him, he'll keep coming back?"

         "'I am eternal. . .'"  Vincent quoted, shaking his head in disbelief.  He laughed shortly at the impossibility of it all.

    "Stop laughing, you idiot!  This ain't funny!"  Barrett growled, "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

    "I thought the lifestream was supposed to be on our side!!"  Cid snapped.  "What the hell is it thinking?"

    "Not. . . thinking. . . Just instinct."  Cloud coughed weakly.  "Self-survival first and all that."

    "At least we know that he won't be trying to get Nibro's super weapon," Red commented, ever optimistic, cocking his head as he tried to find some silver lining.  "He made it obvious that he was only interested in Cloud.  And we have successfully rescued Cloud.  So now we only have two separate missions, stopping Sephiroth and stopping the Heiwa monastery, instead of three interconnecting ones."

    "Yeah, but one of those missions is fucking impossible!"  Cid yelped, throwing his hands up in the air.  "That is, if Cloud is telling the truth."

    "How dare you imply that Cloud might be lying??"  Tifa snapped.

    "Hey, I didn't say that.  Just that silver hair might have been messing with his mind, you know?  It's perfectly possible."  

    "How sure of this are you, Cloud?" Vincent asked, his voice almost as quiet as Cloud's.  

    "Sephiroth is sure that it's true."

    "It is a fact that we killed him before and that he came back."  Red sighed.

  Vincent shrugged, leaving Cloud to Tifa's care as he stood and stared at a picture on the wall: empty mountain cliffs coated in snow, a gust of cold wind racing down from the icy peaks to rustle the needles of a scraggily pine in the foreground.  _Lucretia, my beloved, I'm sorry.  I tried to bring your son peace once before, but it seems I failed, and I can't see how I can succeed this time either.  But I will do everything in my power to try and save him . . .no matter what the cost . . .   _Cloud was looking at him strangely.  Vincent wondered if the younger man had heard his thoughts.   A month ago he wouldn't even have considered the possibility, but Sephiroth had had no trouble reading his mind, and to a large extent Cloud and Sephiroth were the same. . . _except in personality and ethics, of course_, he added hurriedly, just in case Cloud had been listening.  But the blond didn't react, seemingly absorbed in something Barrett was saying.

    ". . . we gonna do??"  Barrett waved his gun arm in irritation, obviously wishing he could just blast the problem away.  "We gotta stop him somehow or he'll destroy mankind again!!"

    Cloud hesitated, looking thoughtful.  "I'm not actually sure that's necessary. . ."

    "_No. . .it can't be. . . please, not again. . .  I can't, not again. . .  Please don't. . .  I'll do anything you want, just don't let them kill me again . . . It hurts to die. . .  Please. . ."_

Sephiroth's dying words whispered through his mind again.

    "What the hell are you talking about??  Of course we gotta stop him!  You heard him back at the monastery!  He wants to turn you into his little pet and take over the planet! He still got some sort of disgusting hold over your mind or something??  Or Jenova. . . That's it, Vincent said you felt strange, like the lifestream had left you, and only Jenova remained."  Barrett swallowed and stepped back, trying to decide whether to train his gun arm on Cloud or not.

    "Like only Jenova remained?"  Cloud frowned and shook his head in puzzlement.  "Oh, yeah.  I used up all my mako energy casting that spell.  I thought it would kill me, but apparently the Jenova energy was enough to keep me alive, and keep us safe as we fell.  But I'm conscious now, so apparently the lifestream is replenishing me.  Vincent?"

"Huh?"  Still thinking about his lover and whether Cloud could read his thoughts, Vincent was unusually confused.  "Oh. . ."  He closed his eyes and concentrated.  "No, Cloud feels like normal, the mako balancing out the Jenova.  The odd feeling is gone."

"And Sephiroth's dead at the moment, and so he can't control me. . ."  Cloud shook his head, not realizing how very odd that sounded.  "I think I'm safe to be around for now.  Back to my previous comment . . . Sephiroth didn't say he wanted to take over the planet.  He wanted to make it so I couldn't attack him, and the planet couldn't oppose him. . ."  He hesitated again, knowing what people's reactions to his next sentence were likely to be.  "As we fell, he was terrified of dying again.  He said it hurt. . ."

    Tifa got the point immediately.  "You mean he tried to kill off every human on the Planet with the Meteor. . ."

    "Because Zack, a human, killed him once before, knocking him into the lifestream.  He wanted to make sure no one could ever hurt him like that again."  Cloud nodded.  "I think so."

    Red blinked.  "I thought Zack just knocked him into the lifestream then, not killed him.  I mean, you and Tifa were knocked into the lifestream without dying."

    "Maybe he didn't die that time then.  But in any case, I think it was probably very painful for him.  Mako is Jenova's opposite, remember- they cancel each other out of existence when they comes in contact.  I don't know what Hojo did to let Sephiroth and I survive without tearing apart, but I bet that's what happened to him in the lifestream.  After all, I had sworn myself to defend the planet when I fell in; the planet had a reason to protect me, and probably managed to keep the lifestream from coming in contact with the Jenova in my blood.  When I pushed Sephiroth in, he had decided that humans were liars who would hurt him, and he might even have already given himself wholly over to Jenova.  The planet would have had no reason to protect him, and might had deliberately tried to erase him from existence, even though it was destroying part of itself at the same time."

    "But Sephiroth survived because the Jenova was buried in his soul."  Everyone looked at Vincent when he spoke.   "Hojo mentioned it while he worked on me.  That was how he got the mako and Jenova to mingle in you.  Apparently souls are a different form of mako than the lifestream, with different properties.  It's like iron and carbon.  Solid iron won't mix with coal; they'll just sit next to each other.  But melted iron will absorb the coal and create steel.  In the same way, mako and Jenova normally mutually destroy each other, but if the mako is in the 'liquid' form of a soul, Jenova can co-exist with it."

    "But . . ." Cid protested, his cigarette hanging loose from his mouth.

    "And the Jenova might have changed the soul so that it could no longer lose its self-definition to join with the lifestream."  Red nodded.  "The Jenova probably buried itself within the soul, completely encased so the lifestream couldn't touch it.  And the lifestream couldn't force Sephiroth's soul to dissolve, so it had no way of forcing through to destroy the Jenova.  Still, it would have been a constant war until the lifestream gave up, creating a new body for him and kicking his soul out."

    "And Sephiroth himself was the unfortunate battleground for that war," Vincent murmured.  _Poor boy. . ._

    "And he was just so scared of it happening again he decided to destroy all humans and the entire lifesteam. . ."  Yuffie's eyes were wide in a mix of awe and horror.

    "Aeris must have known," Tifa said quietly.  "Maybe she never figured out how to explain it to us, or had her own reasons for keeping quiet.  She never talked about killing Sephiroth, just defeating him.  But she never had time to tell us how to defeat  him otherwise."

    "Or maybe she didn't know how. . ."  Red murmured.

    Cloud relaxed slightly.  They believed him. . . not that that solved anything. . .  He wasn't sure why it was important that they knew that, but there was a half formed idea tingling in the back of his mind.

    "So what the hell are we supposed to do with him?  Just keep killing him every- let's see, it's been two years since we killed him, so it takes about two years for him to reincarnate- we're supposed to fight him every two years???  Hell, even us would lose eventually, just by bad luck!  And what about after we die?"

    Cloud and Vincent shared a look.  Vincent smiled with sad, glowing red eyes and looked away.  _When we die. . ._  Cloud bit his lip and concentrated on the conversation again.  "Actually, I don't think that it takes him two years to reincarnate.  I got the impression that it's already happened multiple times, he's just so weak when he comes back that monsters kill him again before he recovers enough strength to protect himself.  That's why he summoned me back when I disappeared on the way to Mideel.  He had been to weak to contact me when I was in Midgar, but once I wandered close by, he could control me and use my body to defend his own till he recovered."

    "Multiple times. . ." Tifa took a deep breath.  "Your strange illnesses, when you collapsed and seemed to be in so much pain. . .  Every time he dies, you feel the pain, don't you?  And when he's in the lifestream, you still feel his pain, just lessened so it seems like you have a constant flu."  She reached out to touch his unburned cheek hesitantly.  He looked away.  "Cloud. . ."  She murmured, looking worried.  

    He covered the hand against his cheek, holding the comforting warmth pressed there.  "I'll be Ok, Tifa.  It's not bad; I don't remember it, remember?  It's more important to stop Sephiroth from destroying anything else."  The entire company shifted uncomfortably.  Cloud finally looked up.  "Oh, stop it, you guys."  He shook his head in exasperation.  "We gotta stop Sephiroth.  I'm certainly much, much better off when he's dead than when he's alive, regardless of what else that entails.  I'd much rather be sick than a puppet!"

    Yuffie gasped in sudden realization, stumbling backwards and tripping so she sat on her bum in the dust.  She didn't even seem to notice, staring at Cloud in confusion and pity.  Then another idea hit her and she glanced over at Vincent.  "You guys. . . you have Jenova in your souls too, don't you?  When you die. . .  That's not fair!!  You're the good guys!"  She leapt to her feet, brushing herself off absent-mindedly.  "And Cloud shouldn't have to feel it when Sephiroth dies!  What sort of sadistic bastard designed this world?"  Everyone was looking at her as she sniffled, wiping her fist angrily across her face.  When her hand fell away, her eyes were burning with the righteous fury found only in youth and insanity.  "It's NOT fair!!"

    "We don't know that,"  Red said gently, having apparently considered the issue already.  The flame on the end of his tail dimmed slightly though, betraying his worry.  "Cloud and Vincent have done a great deal for the Planet.  It will probably do it's best to protect them, just as it did when Cloud fell in."

    "It doesn't matter."  Cloud said firmly.  "If that's the price of protecting the planet, then I'm willing to pay it.  But we have more important things to discuss.  Assuming it takes Sephiroth three weeks to be reincarnated, we have three weeks to deal with that fake monastery before we have to deal with him.  If worst comes to worse, then yes, we'll kill him again, or lock him up where he can't cause problems or something.  They're not set solutions, because someday in the future someone won't be strong enough to kill him, or he'll escape, but it'll do till we come up with something better." 

    "Now what about the monastery?"  Cloud had fallen instinctively back into his role as leader of the group.  

    "I'm readying the Wutaian military," Yuffie offered.  "Six squadrons could march now, but it'll be at least a few more days before the rest of the army can gather."

    "Six squadrons would just be a slaughter.  We'll wait.  Actually, no offense, but why just use the Wutai armies?  The more numbers we have, the better our odds of success are, the faster we can topple them and get to the weapon, and the more likely that they'll surrender without much fighting.   Why don't we call up Reeve and get the Shinra army to come also?  I'm not sure how much he could send in such short notice, but Junon's pretty close, and they have one hell of an arsenal."

    Everyone stared at him.  Barett scratched his head.  "Yeah, I guess we could ask Shinra for help. . ."  He sounded doubtful.

    Cloud rolled his eyes.  "It's not Shinra, it's Reeve.  Cait Sith, remember?  Our friend?"

    "Yeah, but the troops will be Shinra troops."  Tifa pointed out.

    "And they don't particularly like Wutai.  We were at war a generation ago, remember?"  Yuffie frowned, not likeing the idea of a large number of potentially hostile soldiers invading her soil.

    "They don't even particularly like Reeve, cuz he cut their budget so much.  They might not even obey him."  Cid shook his head.  "I know that I disobeyed Shinra every time they did something I didn't like, just to show my opinion, when I was building that rocket for them."

    "And Shinra troops sure as hell don't like Avalanche!  And we don't like them!"  Barrett nodded decisively.  He'd have banged his gun arm on a table, but there wasn't one around.

    "Guys. . ."  Cloud sighed.  At least he'd gotten them to change the subject.  "We're talking about protecting Midgar.  Even Shinra troops would be willing to work with us to accomplish that, I think.  And Yuffie, I know you don't want Shinra troops here, but face it, Wutai is a part of the Shinra Empire now, and as such, you might as well use Shinra troops to protect yourself.  Unless you're planning on rebelling soon, which maybe you are, now that the Shinra military's been partially disbanded?"  He cocked an eyebrow in question.  She shook her head negatively.

    "I used to want to- but it would cause so much upset, and everyone's suffered so much.  Even though I bet Reeve wouldn't turn it into a war, he'd just give us our independence. . . It's not worth it now though.  If we lost trade with Shinra, hell, even if we just lost the tourist trade, the economy would fall apart so fast. . .  Everyone has more chance of survival if we all work together.  But I don't want us to lose what makes us Wutai either.  I want us to keep some independence, if we can."

     "Talk about that with Reeve,"  Cloud ordered.  "For now, we're trying to keep another set of dictators like the old Shinra from rising.  Because trust me, while Reeve will work with you, they won't."

    Yuffie nodded.  "I guess I'd better be the one to contact Reeve then, huh?  Since Wutai is still a semi-sovereign state, it'll have to be an official diplomatic request for military aid."

    "Thanks, Yuffie."  Cloud smiled at her.  She shook her head.  "How do you get me to do things so easily?  Or more to the point, how come you're always correct about these things?"  She held up a hand quickly. "Don't answer that!  I've got a secure connection to Midgar in my office; I'll use that."

    "Just a sec, I ain't working with no damn Shinra troops!  They'll stab us in the back!"  Barett bellowed.  "Maybe it's logical and all, but they are gonna make sure that if anyone dies out there, it's gonna be Avalanche!"

    "You don't have to go if you don't want to, Barrett.  Neither do the rest of you.  It would be nice, because I trust you, and you're good fighters, but this attack is going to be won by numbers and firepower, not individual skill.  It won't hurt things too much if you don't come."

    Barrett opened his mouth, but Cloud held up a hand to keep him from saying anything.  "Don't decide now, just think about it for a while, Ok?  Go ahead and call, Yuffie."

    "Yeah. . ."  Yuffie headed out, glancing behind her uncomfortably.

    "Well, we'd better let you get some more sleep, you're still injured and all. . ."  Cid hesitated and then motioned everyone towards the door.

    "I'll stay."  Tifa said softly.

    "Ok then.  See ya later this evening, Cloud, Tifa."  Cid hurried out.

    "Later you two," Red said, and the others followed him out, each murmuring their good-byes.

    Cloud sighed.  "Could you help me lay back down, Tifa?"

    She nodded, and let him lean against him as she removed the pillows and he fell back against the white cotton sheets.

    "Thanks."

    She nodded again, and grabbing one of the pillows, lay down on the straw mat beside him.

    "Does anyone else think that Cloud's being kinda pushy?  As in, pushy beyond normal leader pushy and way beyond normal Cloud behavior?  He's usually pretty wussy about giving orders."  Barrett was leaning against the painted red fence overlooking the river where the Water Dragon theoretically dwelled.  

    Cid nodded.  "Hell, yes."

    Yuffie hesitated, having just returned from sending the message to Reeve.  "But he seems to be right, so I don't have any problem following him.  Unless you think Sephiroth's still controlling him or something?"

    Barrett turned away glumly, kicking a pebble into the swift flowing water.  "I don't know.  I just don't know."

    Nanaki and  Vincent glanced at each other.  "He is acting normal considering the situation."  Vincent said firmly.

    Red nodded, sitting down so he could address them without straining his neck so much, as they were all so much taller than him.  "He has information and plans which it is vital that he relay to us.  He is feeling that it is necessary to do so as quickly as possible because Sephiroth will awaken in three weeks, and from that point on we will no longer be able to fully trust anything Cloud says or does.  So he wants to make sure all problems are ironed out before then.  Moreover, he is ill, and will probably spend a great deal of the time between now and then asleep and unable to coordinate things.  He has a limited amount of time and is attempting to use it as efficiently as possible."

 "He is also slightly in shock from learning about his likely immortality,"  Vincent added, looking dark and unapproachable as his red eyes glowed at them from the shadows under a pine tree.  Most of them thought his constant hiding in shadows was some instinct that accompanied his transformations into Chaos, but in reality it was just a long kept habit from the Turks he had never bothered to change.

    Barrett stared at the mysterious man.  They had known each other for years, fought by each other's side, traveled together.  Yet he still couldn't read Vincent's expressions, and not just because of the high collar that hid the lower part of his face, and the dark hair that cast shadows across the rest.  Nor was it because his red eyes looked so inhuman as to obscure emotion, for they did not.  It was something different about Vincent's thinking, a cold practicality from his employment in the Turks, combined with deep emotions he kept locked up inside.  Barrett would even guess that Vincent would have been a romantic, if he hadn't been so good with a gun that the Turks got a hold of him, what with the deep love he still bore a woman who had married another, even after several decades.  And Barrett suspected that Vincent still felt each emotion deeply, he had just learned to bury it deep down inside.

    "You ok, man?"

    Vincent nodded.  "I was aware that I was likely to live a very long time from the moment you awakened me, and decades had passed without my ageing.  I have grown used to the idea.  As for the rest,"  he shrugged.  "Although I am delighted that you think otherwise of me, I am not a good person, and I have destroyed more lives than I care to remember.  Whether the world is fair or not, I do not deserve heaven."

    "Hey!"  Yuffie protested.  "You loved her, Ok?  You tried your best.  Maybe you could have done better, maybe you could have saved her.  But someone who can't swim can't be expected to save a drowning person.  You have the knowledge and experience necessary to save her.  You can't blame yourself forever for that!"

    Vincent looked up and smiled, knowing that his fangs were bared now that his chin was no longer hidden in the cloak's collar.  "I am delighted you think so highly of me.   But I refer to times before that.  I was a Turk during the times just following the wars, when half the country hated the other half, no one was sure whether the Shinra or the military actually ruled, and speaking one's opinion was a sure way to be found dead the next day.  The Turks you know are paragons of virtue in comparison."  He allowed the smile to fade and turned away from his friends to disappear into the forest.  

    "Ok,"  Barret said finally, breaking the silence, "Who thinks that Mr. 'I'm never going to talk about my past or show any emotion' Vincent is acting weird?"

    Everyone raised their hand.__

    Vincent paused beside a waterfall, deep in the forest.  It was a mere trickle, a thread of white draped over a bolder no taller than him.  The steady dripping was comforting, as was the smell of wet stone and moss.  He reached out his metal hand and held it under the water, watching the liquid pool in his palm and then split into four streams dribbling out from between his spread fingers.  It wouldn't rust he knew.   Hojo made his creations to last.  

    He sighed. What had come over him?  Was it fear of the pain death would bring?  He had never feared death before.  When he was a Turk, fearing death guaranteed it.  And after Lucretia died, he no longer cared.  

That wasn't exactly true.  For a very long time, he would have welcomed it.  It had only been in the last year or two that he had begun to find beauty in life again.  Still, the concept of suddenly not existing held no more fear than it ever had.  And he knew that he did not fear the pain.  Whether it would cleanse him in the Planet's opinion or not, even now he didn't object to pain, seeing it as payment to those he had hurt before.  Not that he sought it, for he didn't, and indeed greatly preferred and sought out pleasure of any sort, but he didn't run from pain.  And as he had said, he had spent a long time getting used to the idea that he would exist for a very long time, and his mind wasn't really capable of comprehending the difference between 'a very long time,' and eternity.

    No, he was feeling off balance due to a much more normal, human situation.

    _Sephiroth. . . and my beloved Lucretia . . ._

An aide hurried up to Yuffie's side, wearing an elaborate costume that designated him as part of her inner staff and carrying a scroll.

"Your highness."  He bowed and offered her the scroll.  "The transcript of the reply from Midgar."

"Thank you." Yuffie waited till the man had left and then began to read.

To her majesty the most royal and imperial crown princess of our beloved ally Wutai:

I received your message and will send you the aid you requested.  It will take a few days at the absolute minimum for I will go to Junon personally to give the order and see that it is carried out.  If you have no objection, I would suggest that both our troops be joined under Cloud's command, as he is competent and it is generally more effective in military situations to have only one supreme commander.

May you be successful in this endeavor.

President Reeve

Yuffie sighed.  As they had expected, Reeve was having trouble getting the Shinra troops to obey him.  The poor guy.  At least he still kept his sense of humor about it.  He had inherited one hell of a messed up situation from the Shinra dynasty.  Which was a good question.  Now that there were no surviving Shinra, who would inherit after Reeve?  Would he choose someone, or would he open the country to elections like used to happen six hundred years ago?  Or would he set up his own dynasty?  Well, he'd have to find a lady first.  Yuffie chuckled, trying to imagine what sort of girl the shy ex-minister of urban affairs would like.  Ah well.  All they could do now was wait for another communication from him.  Well, that wasn't exactly all they could do.  She had about six million tactical meetings and military reviews to attend in the interim.  At least her father had come out of semi-retirement to run most of them.  She had discovered a severe lack of experience in dealing with the military under an emergency situation.  They wanted everything done their way, right away.  Even Allen was supporting his commander's ideas over what she and her father thought was feasible.  

Dang.  She had promised herself she wouldn't think of him for a while.  When she first returned she had been far too busy to sneak away for some private time with him, so all she could do was exchange a few formalized phrases with him in the hall.  And then once she started mobilizing the army, they were suddenly on opposite sides of every issue, and all they seemed to do was argue.  

She sighed again.  At least it would all be over soon, provided nothing went wrong.

*********************************************

AUTHOR'S NOTES

    Dang, now I have to write a fic about Vincent's past in a Shinra even more messed up than the one we know.  One dark, and dangerous, where no one can be trusted, and serving the wrong person means death. . .  I haven't even finished this one or it's sequel Snow Queen, or Entering the Turks, or the frog story I'm half working on!!  Why do I do this to myself. . . .  Sigh.  This is turning into an Arc.  Actually, I'd previously decided not to write much about Vincent because I know most of the way I see him is due to Glass Shard's wonderful fic about him and Lucretia.  I think this is different from her version in most ways though . . .  Might be some personality cross overs, just because Glass's version is so dang good it's embedded itself in my psyche, but I'll do my best to avoid it.  Oh, and the Turks definitely show up next chapter.  One last question- was it Cloud or Zack who knocked Seph into the lifestream after he burned Nibelham??  I couldn't remember.  I'll go look it up when I edit this after I finish writing it, if no one tells me, I promise.

Inarae

ginabrae@aol.com

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	9. CH 8: KING OR PAWN?

CHAPTER EIGHT: KING OR PAWN?

Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.  

I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!

C&C welcome and appriciated.  Thanks for reading.

**********************************

Reeve was tired.  Not the 'I just jogged two miles and got all sweaty' tired, and not the 'that damned dog next door kept me awake all night' tired, but the tired that comes from weeks of knowing that any mistake on his part might cause the whole world to fall  apart.  Weeks where each day brought a new crisis before yesterday's had been solved.  Weeks where every crisis killed.  He attempted to glare at his briefcase, but it was weak and uninspired.  He sighed.  It wasn't the briefcase's fault.  Just those damn files inside.  An approaching rainstorm that was likely to flood the culverlets where many of Midgar's squatters lived.  An attacking frog tribe near Mideel that was killing traders.  A new study that showed the huge number of deaths caused by street lights malfunctioning due to the Mako reactors being off line.  The exponential rise in street crime and gang wars due to the people's distrust of the government.  Complaints from Snow Village that they couldn't buy the clothing they need to survive the winter because Nibelham had turned off their textile factories to save energy.  Suspicions that someone in accounting was stealing millions of desperately needed gil, and an angry  letter from the head of accounting refusing to force his staff to undergo security checks and lie detectors for unsubstantiated rumors because it would weaken moral.  The list went on an on.  

          And now he was sitting in the executive suite in Junon, unable to deal with any of that because some madman had a big gun and plans to take over the world, and Reeve didn't have an army to oppose him because he'd already pissed the Shinra troops off too much.  The military didn't like being downsized, whatever the reason.  Especially not a sixty percent downsize.   But he had needed the money to rebuild Corel's mines and buy coal so there would be some sort of energy to run hospitals, clean polluted water, run factories to can food so people would have something to eat this winter. . .  Only now the coal was polluting the air something terrible, and the hospitals were getting full of people with respiratory problems. . .  And the ex-military officers were revolting, and the ones still here wouldn't listen to him. . .  God, he was going to die of a stroke before the end of the decade.  Maybe Sephiroth had the right idea- a quick painless death for everyone instead of this interminable dragging on.  He couldn't see any way mankind had a chance for survival with the world like this. . .

          He shook his head and laughed quietly at himself.  Angst, anyone?  He took a sip of the amber liquid in his cup and smiled up at Cait Sith, who was perched on a shelf just above the door.  He had gotten in the habit of taking the robotic cat along with him whenever he left Midgar.  There was something infinitely hopeful and energetic about the silly and earnest looking toy that weapons development had turned into a deadly radio controlled fighter.  Would that he could at least pretend to have the same. . .  Idly he wondered how people would react if he stopped coming in to work and sent Cait instead, controlling the robot from the equipment in his bedroom like he had during Avalanche's battle to save the planet from Sephiroth.  Or, to be honest, from the equipment currently in his luggage.  He glanced over  at the innocuous cheap gray nylon exercise bag with 'Shinra Gymnasium' scribbled across the side in brilliant neon pink and lime green.  It worried him that he had brought it.  He carried Cait with him a lot, it was true, but to bring the rest . . .  Everyone thought Cait was just a weird fetish- they were used to those from the rest of the Shinra hierarchy, and a cuddly stuffed cat at least was fairly harmless, as far as quirks go.  Few knew of Cait's military background, not connecting the small toy with the one that had ridden the huge mog and fought beside Avalanche.  The mog had been so big it was what everyone had focused on.  Even those who did know thought that Cait was harmless without the mog. . .   When he brought the bag on this trip they just thought he wanted to work out so the military wouldn't complain about his being weak, and laughed at his useless efforts. No one suspected a thing. 

The Junon security checkpoint had scanned his luggage without any objections, not realizing how the two together turned into one of the deadliest weapons Shinra had ever developed.  It really was lucky that the military had refused to use Cait when they saw how ridiculous his fighting style looked.  Reeve had found him in a trash can walking home one cold and lonely New Year's, and decided to take the toy home because he figured that some heartless Shinra janitor had thrown away a kid's Christmas present, and he wanted to find the kid and return it.    Do a good deed and get it returned tenfold. . .  When he took the cat out of the dumpster, there was a weapons development tag tied to it's foot, stamped 'Top Secret.'   Curious, he dug through the pile of leftover lunches, and found the rest, along with a binder full of circuit diagrams and the codes to activate the thing.   He cleaned it up at home and modified the circuits a little so the transmitter/receiver piggybacked on the same frequencies as Shinra's television broadcast stations, and he could use them to transmit commands to Cait from anywhere in the world, without using military frequencies.  By the time he decided to help Avalanche, he had the perfect tool to contact them while still remaining with Shinra to do what he could from the inside. 

Still, for him to have brought Cait and the control equipment . .   He had probably just been silly.  No matter how disgruntled Junon command was with his leadership, surely they wouldn't. . .  but the ex-military officers were. . .  Reeve shook his head and bit his lip, taking another deep swallow of the amber liquid from the engraved crystal shot glass in his hand.  His eyes smarted as the burning liquid raced down his throat.  He was expecting problems, not just the 'refuse to obey orders' type, but the 'military coup and killing the current president' type.  Sure he had bodyguards, but the only ones he truly trusted were young; the experienced ones were loyal to the military, he was pretty sure.  And Avalanche was busy in Wutai. . .

What was up with him and self-pity tonight?  He needed to get more sleep. . . maybe he was coming down with something.  He had been in charge of Shinra for two and a half years, and nothing terrible had happened yet.  Lots of things that could have been terrible, and lots of things that could have been dealt with better, but mankind had survived.  

People had survived!  

Sure there had been a lot of deaths, but no where near the thirty percent of the population that scientists had been predicting after Meteor destroyed all industry, poisoned the majority of crops around the world, and left the citizens of the world's most populous city injured and homeless.  He could defeat the odds.  Look at before he became president! He had helped a ragtag group of seven adventurers- eight if you count Aeris- repel a sentient meteor half the size of the moon, overthrow the world government, and kill General Sephiroth, despite Sephiroth having been a master strategian and the ultimate warrior that mankind had ever produced.  Produced meaning in a lab, in Sephiroth's case.  He still felt pity for the confused, silver haired man-boy who had been his foe.  Man-boy.  Admittedly, Sephiroth had been older than him, but there had been something infinitely child-like in Sephiroth's belief that there could ever be a perfect solution, in his lashing out in single-minded anger when he found out that he had been lied to, and in his eternal quest for someone he could trust, regardless of who that person was.

He shook his head and set down the glass, half the liquid still swishing around the bottom.  Sitting around thinking accomplished nothing.  Leaning over, he unzipped the gray exercise bag and pulled out the virtual reality headset and the attached keyboard.     On the shelf across the room, Cait's eyes opened to stare curiously at his master, huge ears swiveling as his radar turned on and scanned the room.  

"It's been a while since you activated me,"  the cat's AI mewed in a friendly, gravelly voice, it's tiny mouth smiling slightly as it spoke.  "Something up?"  It jumped down from the shelf, somersaulting in mid air just to show off.  It landed on its hind legs and bowed, it's red cape bouncing in the air.  "Something fun?"  
          "You got it, my friend."  Reeve shook his head, smiling as the black cat frowned at the slightly brown color of his white forepaws and began to lick them clean.

Cait glanced up at his chuckle and glared, stomping his red booted foot.  "You need to take better care of me!"

"Sorry, sorry,"  The dark haired man apologized, swallowing the laughter.  "I've been busy."

"Too busy to take care of your friends?  Hmph.  At least you woke me up now, before you spilt coffee on me and fried my circuits or something.  And don't think that I don't know that you've had me sitting on your desk like some sort of mindless paperweight!"

"You're just too special to me for me to leave you behind,"  Reeve replied, typing away at the keyboard.  

/ID Code./

/Mission Programming./  

/Objectives./

"Hmm."  The cat seemed vaguely placated.  "So why're we at Junon?  I thought they didn't like you."

"They don't, and that's why I need you.  If something happens, I want you to stay free and help me from the outside."

"Oh, I get it!"  The cat grinned widely and jumped up in the air, clicking his heels together as the new programming entered his circuitry.  "I'll hide somewhere on the base and be like your secret weapon if you get into a fight, because you're no good at fighting!"

"Thank you so much for pointing that out to me."  Reeve muttered sarcastically.

"Oh, you didn't know?"  The cat asked, shaking his finger at Reeve.  "You're usually more observant than that.  I mean, think about it.  You've spent your life doing paperwork, you're no hunk of muscle, you've never been in the military, and you avoid conflict at all costs, much less fights.  You barely even know how to shoot a gun!  You need to pay attention to your weaknesses better!!  That's basic tactics!"  Cait twitched his whiskers earnestly.  Reeve sighed.

"Why do I put up with you?"

          Cait looked confused.

          The intercom to Reeve's suite buzzed.  "President Reeve?"

          Reeve folded up the control equipment handed it to a puzzled Cait, who staggered comically at the weight.  The equipment was half as big as the cat.

          "Hide yourself and this and get out of here as soon as you can."

          "Got ya, big guy.  Take care of yourself."

          "You too."

          The buzzer rang again as Cait scampered off  and hid amongst the dense leaves of a potted tree in a corner.  "President Reeve?  The commander is ready to see you now."

          Reeve straightened his tie and slipped on a dark blue suit jacket over his white shirt.  He pressed the button to the door, and it slid open.  "Please take me to him."

************************************

          Avalanche was lazing around the suite Yuffie had given them.  Cloud was napping with Tifa reading a book beside him, Vincent was leaning against a wall lost in thought, and Cid was sitting by the table, sharpening his spear.  Barret and Red were playing chess.

          Red nosed his black pawn across the board, finishing a trap he had been building for the last half hour.  "Checkmate," he said calmly, his tail swishing with amusement as he took in Barret's expression.

          The massive man frowned at the chessboard in disbelief, unable to believe that his white king was so completely surrounded by enemy pieces.  The door to the room slammed open.

          "Cloud!"  Yuffie yelled, and the figure on the mattress against the far wall stirred.  

          Cloud sat up and ran his fingers through his sleep tussled blond hair.  "What happened?"

          "Listen!"  Yuffie held up the tape recorder she had been clutching in a white knuckled hand and pressed the button.

          Static.

          "Junon command to Wutai command."

          "Wutai receiving."

          "We have a message for Princess Kirsagi and her Avalanche friends, from General Hoyman, supreme commander of the Shinra military."

          Tifa frowned.  "I thought Reeve was the supreme commander of the military."

          "Shhh!"  Yuffie ordered as the tape continued.

          ". . . under our control.  If the Wutai army does not cease all preparations of an offensive against General Falstor and the members of Avalanche do not surrender themselves directly to Junon command, at noon seven days from now, including all seven members, Mr. Reeve will be executed."

          "WHAT?!!!!"  Everyone yelped.

          "Those damned Shinra, I knew we couldn't trust them!"  Barrett's eyes were wide in fury as he snarled.

          "We must save Reeve."  Red's tail lashed uncomfortably.  "But our arrest would  give the monastery and Sephiroth free rein. . ."

          "Then we just have to rescue Reeve before we deal with our other enemies,"  Cloud said firmly, getting to his feet.  "Your troops will be ready to march on the monastery in about ten days, right Yuffie?"

          "Yeah, but. . ."

          "Try to keep preparations secret, but continue.  Mobilizing less obviously will slow you down, but we can't risk troops coming over to help Falstor from Junon before the seven days he gave us are up.  I imagine you can still be ready to attack in two weeks?  Stopping the monastery is more important than any of our lives, and I'm sure Reeve would agree.  The rest of us are going to Junon to break Reeve out, and sabotage enough of their ships that they can't send troops to Wutai."

          "The timing on this will be tight."  Red murmured, head cocked as he thought.  It takes six days to get from Wutai to Junon at maximum speed, so we'll only have twenty-four hours to prepare to leave on this end, and to rescue Reeve and sabotage the ships on the other end.  By the time we get back to Wutai, and march to the monastery, it will be about another nine days.  We will only have a day or two to defeat  the monastery before Sephiroth awakes.  Is there a pattern to where the Lifestream usually reincarnates him, Cloud?"  

          Cloud searched his memory of Sephiroth's memory and nodded.  "He always awakens near Cosmo Canyon."

          "But that's eight days beyond Junon!  We'd never make it back from the monastery in time to be there when he returns.  If there's left over supplies there from when you were there, and he can use them to survive and get strong again. . ."

          Cloud nodded again.  "I did leave my pack there, and yes, it has canned food and a few materia.  He is likely to recover fine on his own this time.  That's why I'm not going to come back to Wutai with you.  I'll go find Sephiroth and kill him."  

          The room erupted in protests.

          "But he'll just come back.  That doesn't seem like much of a solution."  Red frowned.

          "You bloody idiot, you can't go!  You'll just end up being his puppet again.  The rest of us'll go, and you run the war here in Wutai!  I killed him once, we can do it!"  Cid snapped.

          "You're still too sick to even be thinking about going to Junon, much less fighting Sephiroth,"  Tifa shook her head.  "You're not going anywhere even if I have to tie you down to the bed!"

          "I can just stay there and keep killing Sephiroth until we do come up with a more perment solution, or build a cage that can hold him.  And I'll be fine.  I've fought in a lot worse condition than this.  We all have.  As for the rest, he's in a lot of pain while in the lifestream, and when it expels him.  My guess is that he won't be able to think coherently enough to use me.  But just in case, I'd like some of you to come along, and kill him or take care of me if I start to act weird."

          "Take care of me had better not mean what I think it does,"  Tifa snarled.  "Not a chance!"

          "I'll just come back, same as him.  You can apologize and take care of me then.  Or maybe someone can come up with another way to neutralize me?  Red, Cid, you're the scientists here. . ."

          "Don't call me a fucking scientist!  I'm an engineer!"  Cid snapped.  "Why do you have to go?"

          "I'm the only one who can sense him.  I mean, I know he's within a few days travel of where I left you guys on the way to Mideel, but that's still a huge amount of territory.  None of you would be able to find him."

          "I hate to say it, but I think Cloud has the only workable plan,"  Vincent murmured.  "If we're going to save Reeve, we only have a few hours before we must leave.  We do not have time to argue like this."

          Red nodded.  "For now, let us accept his plan.  If anyone comes up with something better on the way to Junon, we can modify it then."

          Cloud nodded.  "Thank you. Everyone, pack up and get ready to go."

          "You can't!"  Everyone spun around at the sudden exclamation from near the door.

          "Lieutenant  Allen,"  Yuffie's voice was slightly dangerous.  He swallowed and entered the room.

          "Your Highness, General Tsuoru asked me to tell you there would be a meeting at two this afternoon to decide which garrisons it's safest to pull fighters from."

          "Acknowledged.  I'll be there,"  She stared at him with narrowed eyes when he didn't leave.

          He glanced away from her, aware that he was embarrassing her, but feeling that it was important that he speak.  "I realize that I don't have the experience the rest of you have, but may I ask how you intend to successfully invade Junon?  Look at what happened at the Heiwa monastery.  Junon is the headquarters for the entire Shinra military, and has been so for hundreds of years.  The Heiwa monastery was only built a year ago, and probably only has a fifth the armament and manpower.  If you lost there, how can you hope to win at Junon?"

          "We've done it before."  Yuffie's voice was curt.  Why did he keep embarrassing her like this?  It was a good question, but by the Holy Water Dragon, couldn't he just trust her?  He even said it himself; he was too inexperienced to understand the subtleties.

          Barret nodded.  "That's all true- Lt. Allen, was it?- but we know Junon's layout as well or better than it's commanders do, thanks to Cloud's messed up memory of being in Soldier."

          "Hey,"  the blond in question protested mildly.  

          The lieutenant looked confused and even more worried, if possible.  "Sir. . ."

          "I sort of inherited the memories of one of Shinra's SOLDIERS."  Cloud explained, glaring at Barrett.  "Junon is very old, and has resisted many attacks, but it's built to repel a massive force, not a few invaders.  Moreover, because it's so old, they've decided what the most efficient techniques for defending it are.  They haven't changed the pattern of guards in sixty years, nor the times that the guards change.  Since I know those, it'll be pretty easy to sneak by them. Moreover, it's so huge that no one knows everyone, and no one is surprised to see a stranger wandering around fiddling with equipment.  If we get some uniforms and act like we know what we're doing, it's likely no one will even realize we've been there until it's too late for them to do anything about it."

          "Heiwa monastery, on the other hand, was a completely unknown quantity," Red cut in calmly, warm brown eyes watching the young man.  "In part it was our fault.  We were so used to easily defeating Shinra troops that we didn't even consider that they might change their patterns from those Cloud knows.  We will not make that mistake again."

          "We sure as hell won't!"  Cid lifted his spear off the table and peered closely at the edge.  He grinned wolfishly.  "But now we gotta get going.  Get your lazy butts in gear guys, it's time to go kick some Shinra ass again.  Oh, and don't goof around too much, 'Your Highness,'" The gray haired pilot snickered as he stood. "It's an insane plan, but it looks like we gotta depend on you to run things here.  Don't fuck up like you usually do, kiddo."

          "Me fuck up?  Who always crashes our transportation, Gramps?  First the Bronco, and then the Shinra 26, and then the Highwind. . .  I don't know why they even let an old geezer like you fly."

          "They were sacrificed to save us, you idiot!  I didn't crash anything.  And who're you calling a geezer, baby face?"

          "Enough, you two,"  Cloud cut in before Lt. Allen could decide to kill Cid to protect his Princess' honor.  "Cid's right, we gotta get going.  Everyone, go pack your bags- full weaponry, but we'll be traveling fast, so don't over pack.  We'll meet back here in twenty minutes."

          Cid rolled his eyes,  but everyone headed to Junon nodded and headed for the door.  Tifa was the last to leave, and mouthed "good luck," and smiled at Lt. Allen as she passed by, her head carefully turned so Yuffie couldn't see.  The door shut behind her, leaving Yuffie and Allen alone in the room.

          "I'm glad you're not going to Junon," he said quietly.

Yuffie shook her head. "I've got to go see how much of the old pre-war armaments they've actually gotten to work."  She pushed by him and headed for the door.

          "Yuffie. . ."  He grabbed her arm.  "I may not be able to predict the intricate details of your plans, but I'm not an idiot.  It was a legitimate question."

          "Telling your commander she can't do something was not."

          "You're right.  It wasn't, and I apologize for that.  But dang it, Yuffie, I'm never going to be able to get the experience to make you respect me if you keep me in the dark about what's going on."

          "You're just a lieutenant.  You don't need to know."

          "But you're not consulting with your generals either.  You've got a responsibility to Wutai!  You can't keep gallivanting about with Avalanche."

          She pulled her arm free.  "I'm not gallivanting, I'm protecting Wutai.  And I'm not 'with Avalanche,' either.  I am Avalanche.  I'm just as much a legitimate member as any of the others."

          "But you're a princess of Wutai first!  You have to remember that.  No matter how much you love your friends, your first duty is to govern your country fairly and honestly.  People are beginning to talk."

          "To talk?"  Her voice was cold.

          "That you're more loyal to Avalanche than you are to Wutai.  That you'd be willing to sacrifice us to accomplish their goals."

          "What?!"

          "Look at it from their standpoint!  You're setting Wutai up as a target for both Falstor's super-weapon and the entire Shinra military!  We barely even have a chance against just the monastery!  And everyone remembers the destruction following the Shinra wars.  If that happened again, nothing of Wutai would survive intact."

          "It won't come down to a war."

          "You hope.  You have to consult with them, your highness.  By the Holy River, you're not even the true ruler of Wutai, but you're not consulting with your father either.  You're just issuing orders that could end in all our deaths."

          "They're necessary, and I don't have time to go through full parliamentary procedure.  If we don't do this now, the Shinra wars are going to seem like a gentle breeze compared to the storm that will follow.  You're just upset because I won't sit back and let you protect me like a proper lady.  Well, deal with it.  I'm a warrior of the Water Dragon, and I _Will Protect Wutai_."  She slammed open the door, and he could hear her angry footsteps storming down the wooden floor of the hall.

          Allen sighed.  "That's not it. . ."

*********************************************

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Uh, ok, I'm wrong, the Turks still aren't showing up. . .  I swear they have to next scene though.  They have to.   They're at Junon, and the next scene is Junon. . .

Inarae

ginabrae@aol.com

*************************************


	10. CH 9: THE BEST LAID PLANS

CHAPTER NINE: THE BEST LAID PLANS. . .   
  
   
  
Disclaimer:  Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.    
  
I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!  
  
   
  
C&C  makes me happy!  Thanks for reading.  
  
******************************************************  
  
   
  
CHAPTER NINE:  THE BEST LAID PLANS . . .  
  
    
  
              The village on the outskirts of Junon was dark and silent three hours past midnight.  One or two windows flickered with the lonely orange glow of a candle, but that was all.    
  
              "Do we climb the support pillar again, or attack directly?"  Red whispered.  
  
              Cloud thought about it for a minute.  "Direct attack.  It was a quirk of fate that they didn't know they could be invaded that way.  It'll be guarded now, and I can't predict how heavilly.  They've always known about the elevator though, but only put one guard on it regardless."  
  
              The group slipped quietly down the cobblestone main road, keeping to the shadows near buildings and away from the occasional street light. The air hung heavy with the smell of fish and salt, the gentle lapping of the waves and the creaking of the pier masking any small noise the intruders made.  They paused in front of a sheer metal wall that towered ten stories above them and reached to the side for a quarter mile.  The gray metal was mainly unmarked, a vast expanse of blandness that shouted blind and unemotional power, a tribute to the triumph of man over nature, a stark contrast to the small ramshakle fishing village and with it's splintered and weather worn wood buildings, and muddy cobblestone streets.  There was a door marking the end of the road the travelers stood on.    
  
              Vincent reached up to the small red button besides the door, waiting for the others to prepare themselves and nod before he pressed it.  
  
              The door split horizontaly through the middle, gaping open like the mouth of some mechanical beast as it slid into pockets above and below the entry.  Before the door had even opened enough for them to see the interior, Vincent cast his a third level ice spell through the slit.  By the time the flash of yellow faded away, they could see the frozen bodies laying tumbled on the inside.  
  
              "Only one guard, huh Cloud?"  Barret shook his head in disbeleif as he began to drag the bodies out of the elevator.  
  
              Cloud just shrugged.  "They are expecting us after all.  I'm glad you had your ice materia junctioned for multiple oponents, Vincent."  
  
              "It seemed a logical precation."  
  
              "Okay dokie, six Shinra uniforms, just waiting for us to use,"  Cid grinned.  
  
              "Too bad there aren't any large enough for Barett or small enough for Tifa,"  Vincent replied, amused dispite the lack of inflection in his voice.  
  
              "Dang."  
  
              "Me, Vincent, and Cid'll go up.  I'll go into a locker room and get more uniforms, and then bring them down to Barret and Tifa while you stay up there.  That way even if they suspect something and shut down the elevator, you'll be inside and might be able to get it working again."  
  
              Tifa nodded.  "Good luck."  
  
              Cloud inclined his head in reply and gave her a slight smile before waving his group forward.  Then he hesitated.  "Uh, Tifa. . ."  
  
              "Yeah?"     
  
              Cloud blushed.  "Could you turn around a second?"  
  
              Tifa chuckled and did so, listening to the argument springing up behind her.  
  
              "I ain't changing in front of no woman!"  Cid protested.  
  
              "She's not looking."  Barret rolled his eyes.  "Geeze, I'm glad I didn't have you in the original group of Avalanche members.  We'd never 've got anything done."  
  
              "There's some bushes over there you could go hide behind,"  Cloud remarked.  
  
              "Why can't I just change in the elevator?"  
  
              "Yeah, and if you don't change fast enough, the doors'll open at the top and everyone up there'll see you half exposed.  That won't blow our cover. .."  Barret snorted.  "And we can't shut the door without the elevator rising.  Just do it man."  
  
              Cid grumbled something derogatory under his breath and obayed, well aware that the majority of his skin was turning a pale red.  
  
              A few minutes later the doors snapped shut behind them as the elevator rose with a whirr.  Tifa glanced at Red, who had come along for the sake of accompanying Cloud to find Sephiroth afterwards, being too conspicuous to participate in the invasion.  While he could often avoid creating a fuss by acting as a mindless pet or one of the monsters Shinra raised as bodyguards and shock troops, that wouldn't work in this case, as Junon command was likely to have circulated a description of all Avalanche members.  No amount of camoflauge would prevent people from noticing a two hundred pound red cat with six inch fangs and a flame dancing at the end of his tail.  Therefore, he was just going to wait out here.  Tifa sighed as she began to help Barret drag the bodies out of sight behind some bushes.  
  
              The doors on the opposite side of the freight elevator slid open as it reached it's height, revealing the calm sterility of the flight deck waiting room.  Cloud jerked his head at the two behind him, who casually wandered over to a bench and sat down as if waiting for someone.  
  
              Cloud turned down a hallway to the left and entered the small locker room at the far end.  Last time he had been here, it had been empty.  Unfortunately, when the door slid open this time, it was to a cloud of steam and the cheerful insults of soldiers changing to go on duty.  Cloud steeled his face into blankness and stepped inside.  "I have a message for an Ensign Standen, but they gave me the wrong squadron name.  Is he in here, or does anyone know what squadron he's with?"  Cloud carefully scanned the faces before him and the half hidden figures in the showers, carefully counting the number of men.  Elleven. . .  
  
              "Never even heard of him."  The man nearest him shook the water out of his long black hair and grinned.  "You're gonna have to go look him up in the computer, cuz he ain't never been anywhere near us."  
  
              Cloud nodded curtly, eyes cold and expressionless. "Thank you."  He turned and exited the room again, glad that his knees weren't shaking.  He paused in front of a computer station inset into the wall and began to type randomly, even though his lack of a security code kept him from actually interacting with the menu in any way.   
  
It asked for a password and he just kept hitting keys without pressing enter.  A few minutes later, the locker room doors slid open and three laughing soldiers strode out, glancing curiously in his direction for a second before returning to their conversation and continuing down the hall.  Cloud closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Six left.    
  
              The next to leave was a tall man with a square face and a serious expression, who didn't even glance at Cloud as he marched down the hall.  Then three men hurried out, including the black haired man who'd spoken to him earlier.  
  
              "You ever find the guy you're looking for, man?"  
  
              Cloud shook his head, carefully arranging his body so the screen wasn't visible.  "I think they must have given me the wrong name or confused two people or something, cuz there isn't an Ensign with that name.  I'll keep looking a little longer though."  
  
              "Well, if it turns out that the guy you're looking for is in our squad, you're gonna have to wait a while to give him the message, cuz we're loading onto the ship to Wutai in a few minutes.  Get to lead the attack and all, lucky us."  He snorted sarcasticly and then shrugged fatalistically and grinned.  
  
              Cloud's nails dug into the soft rubber on the edge of the computer station.  "Good luck to you,"  he forced himself to say, not trusting himself to face the cheerful trooper.    
  
              "Yeah, we'll need it."  The man sounded slightly confused that his friendly overtures were being rejected.  "Well, later, man."  
  
              Cloud nodded curtly.  A few seconds later the group continued down the hall.  Cloud wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and swallowed hard.  /Two left. . ./  
  
              The locker doors slid open and two young men, barely more than boys, tumbled out, hair dripping and frantically trying to button up their jackets as they ran.  
  
              "Shit man, we're late again!  The commander's gonna kill us!"  
  
              The other boy groaned and they raced down the hall and out of sight.  
  
              Cloud deleted everything he had typed into the password box so it looked the same as when he had first seen it.  Then he hurried into the locker room and began to open cabnets and rummage through shelves.  /too small, too small. . .  this'll fit Tifa though. . .  There's gotta be someone at least close to Barret's size, this is the military. They like big buff guys. . .  Ah, here we go. . ./  Cloud stuffed his gains in a small duffle bag he found on the floor and hurried out.  Just outside the door, he forced himself to slow down and saunter casually down the corridor.  He hit the button to summon the elevator, noticing Vincent and Cid glance at him worriedly, presumably wondering what had taken him so long.  Well, Cid looked worried.  Vincent merely flicked his red eyes towards Cloud for a millisecond, but that signified worry for him.  Cloud ignored them, not wanting any of the various troopers wandering by to realize they were a group.  A single person that vaugely resembled a member of Avalanche was one thing.  Three of them traveling together would be suspicious.  Most people knew Avalanche's faces these days, from when Shinra was hunting them and they were hunting Sephiroth.  
  
The elevator buzzed, the doors slipped open, and he stepped inside, flipping the switch to go down.  Tifa was waiting at the bottom.  
  
              "Here."  Cloud tossed the clothing at her and Barret, who immediately began putting them on.  They had fought together too long to be body conscious on a mission.  No one really cared what body part they were touching when that body part had twelve inch gash slicing across an artery, and after that, it just seemed silly.  Outside of a mission they could return to being male and female and play all the games.  Tifa and Cloud especially prefered to separate their warrior selves from their day to day life.  It was too painful being a warrior.  
  
              "The troopers who were in the elevator?"  Cloud's glowing blue eyes searched the darkness intently.  
  
              "Over there.  I just put a Mini spell on the corpses."  Tifa finished slipping on the navy blue jacket and began to button it up.  There was something very odd about seeing Tifa in the severe and simple cut of the uniform, Cloud decided.  She still looked beautiful, but she also looked. . . competent and cold.   Not that he ever thought that she looked incompetent, but it was always easier to see her as a cheerful bartender or everyone's neighbor and friend, than the brains of an increadably successful revolutionary group.  It was one of the advantages that made her so good.  
  
              "So they'd be too small to be noticed if anyone goes looking for them.  Smart."  Cloud nodded.  "What about you Barret?  Any words of wisdom or advice before we start?"  
  
              "Yeah, a train doesn't get anywhere sitting at the station.  Let's get going."  
  
              Tifa laughed as she finished switching her spare materia orbs to the uniform's pockets.  "Do you have any sayings that don't have to do with trains, Barret?"  
  
              They stepped into the elevator and the huge metal building that towered over the coastline.  The door slamned shut behind them, leaving them in semi darkness only lit by the soft glow of blinking yellow and red emergency lights.  The lift began to rise.  
  
              "They're supposed to be expecting us," Barrett complained under his breath.  "Where the hell are they?  This is too damn easy."  
  
              "That's what you said last time too.  Shinra's just kinda stupid about infiltration.  I don't think we need to worry about it."  Tifa shook her head at him as she curled up her long brown pony tail and stuffed it under the uniform cap, giving her the look of a young boy, at least from the back.  There was nothing she could do about her breasts on this short of notice, although the jacket was made for a man and therefore tight enough to compress them significantly.  She should have anticipated requiring a disguise, but she hadn't thought about it, and the men certaintly hadn't brought the things she'd need to do a really good job.  At least there were female troopers in Shinra, although they were rarer and tended to attract attention.  With her hair up she probably wouldn't be recognized as herself at least.  She tugged on the slightly too short sleeves self consciously, and then caught Cloud grinning at her and laughed quietly at herself.  
  
              The elevator wheezed to a stop.  Cloud positioned himself a little distant from the others, and as the door opened, calmly set off down the corridor towards the heart of the base, trusting the others to follow unobtrusively at a distance.  Dormitory row was almost empty except for a few rowdies still hitting the bars.  Cloud stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered down the street, fighting the urge to whistle.  That was a little too casual, and likely to irritate someone sleeping and create a fuss he really didn't want.  
  
              A door opened as he passed by, releasing a chaotic flow of music and neon lights into the chilly night.  A figure in a blue suit and wet hair stumbled out, reeking of alchol.  Apparently someone had dumped a glass on him, or perhaps the whole bottle, Cloud found himself thinking, wondering why he was so suddently tense.  The figure raised his face, and Cloud found himself looking into a very familiar face.  Hazel green eyes widened at the same time as glowing blue ones.  
  
              "Reno?  I'll walk home with you. . ," the blond haired owner of the sultry voice froze in shock at the doorway.  Her hand dove for the holster at her side.  Vincent was faster.  Faster than the human eye could follow, he threw himself out of the shadows along the edge of the bar, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to close the sharp blades of his mechanical hand around the drunk Reno's throat, digging the points in enough that thin trickles of blood began to dribble down the pale skin.  Elena froze.  Vincent's gun was cocked and ready in his other hand.    
  
              "If you raise a fuss, he dies." The dark man's voice was calm.  His scarlet cape settled from the swift moment, the thick leather making it impossible to notice the small muscle tensions that a good fighter uses to predict their oponent's movements, wrapping him in inscrultability.  Above the high collar of the cloak, his eyes glowed through the stiff strands of black bangs that slipped free of his headband.  His eyes and cloak were the same color as the glistening blood dripping over his golden hand from Reno's throat, as if the color tied the ex-Turk to the current one.  /The symbol of the innocents we kill./ Vincent thought without humor.  
  
              "Come on out and shut the door behind you,"  Cloud ordered, guesturing at the female Turk standing by the door.  Although she looked and spoke like a blond bimbo most of the time, Avalanche had fought Shinra's elite assasigns enough not to underestimate them.  Elena nodded and obayed.  /Come on, Rude, stop kissing that giggly whore and notice something's wrong over here,/ Elena prayed as she let the door thud softly shut behind her, closing her off from the light and the third member of the elite assasigns.  
  
              /Fuck!/ Barret's thoughts mirrored that of his companions.  /We gotta move fast; we can't afford to take prisioners, but Turks have a natural immunity to most spells, and they could probably escape from anywhere we locked them up in.  Are we gonna have to kill them in cold blood?/  Killing them in battle was one thing.  This was different somehow.  Barret glanced worriedly at Cloud, who was doing his stone face thing.  
  
              "Where are they keeping Reeve?"  Cloud asked quietly.  He hadn't reached for the huge sword strapped to his back or the materia orbs strapped to various equipment on his body, but tha aura of danger surrounding him made Cid want to take a step back.  Cloud acting dangerous always made Barret think of Sephiroth. . . maybe just because of the glowing mako enhanced eyes.    
  
              Reno snickered, ignoring the way Vincent's claws scraped into his skin as his throat muscles vibrated.  He didn't seem particularilly upset at the dangerous situation, nor as drunk as he had been a few seconds ago.  Adrinilin was great for erasing the results of an alcholoic binge.  "Oh, what a perfect end to a perfect fucking night.  Naw, that's not right.  What a perfect fucking end to a perfect fucking life, huh?"  
  
              "Talk and you might not die."  Tifa's voice was cold.    
  
              "That 'might' doesn't encourage us to talk much,"  Elena commented cautiously to the other woman.  "Everyone knows how you feel about us, Ms. Lockheart.  I need at least your guarantee that we will have our lives in exchange for our cooperation."  /Not that we'd actually cooperate with you, but this adds a little delay before you act, a little more time for Rude or someone to notice us and do something about it./  Elena carefully kept the thoughts from showing on her face.  
  
              "How I feel about you?"  Tifa asked softly.  A strange calm was seeping over her body, anger lashing under the surface.  "You mean how I feel about your killing thousands of innocents in Midgar and almost everyone I knew?"  Her eyes narrowed.  "Don't worry about it, Turk.  I'll wait to give them their revenge until another day."  She smiled, and it was cold and hungry.  "Unless you give me an excuse to do otherwise, of course."  
  
              "How ironic.  I'm going to be killed for being a murderer by a murderer.  Just my luck, right?"  Reno laughed again.  He considered running a hand through his hair, but wasn't sure that it wouldn't result in the monster-man tearing his throat out.  Vincent had been a Turk after all; he wouldn't assume that a casual motion was harmless.  
  
              Tifa's face darkened.  She took a step forward, but a heavy hand on her shoulder stopped her.  When she glanced back, Barret was glaring at the pair of Turks with murder in his eyes.  "I'll make you eat those words, you bastard.  Those were my friends you killed too.  How dare you call us murders?"  
  
              Elena laughed, making the noise as sarcastic and insulting as she could.  Yeah, this'd work.  If they could keep Avalanche arguing instead of shooting them. . .  "Just calling it as I see it, sister.  Do you really think that all those Shinra soldiers you killed were anything other than innocent?  They were just following orders, they didn't know a damn thing about what was going on in the big sceme of things. And you stole their lives."  
  
              "They attacked us first!"  Barret bellowed. "They would have killed us!"  
  
              "Yeah, because you invaded an area full of enough dangerous equipment that you could have killed an even bigger part of the population.  If you had placed those bombs in just a little differently than you had, those reactors could have exploded and turned Midgar into Gongaga.  They were just heros doing good, protecting people from dangerous rebels."  
  
              "They were supporting evil!"  
  
              "You mean the Shinra?  I still haven't seen any scientific proof that the mako reactors were killing the planet, you know.  And I don't think you have any cuz you would have released it to the public if you did.  All you could come up with was a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo."  Reno closed his eyes and leaned back, using Vincent's chest as a backrest.  He was just sober enough to know that he had drunk enough that his mouth might get himself killed, but not sober enough to really take the possibility seriously and worry about it.  The light scratches on his neck were itching though.  Itching, not hurting.  The blade tips had to be some increadable material, because they were so sharp they pierced his skin deep enough to draw blood without actually damaging much of the thick nerve network in human skin, like a subcutanius shot from a really sharp and thin nedle.  
  
              Cloud cocked his head curiously.    
  
              "Do you actually believe all that?"  There was nothing in his voice beyond a slight surprise and rather offhand  interest, as if chatting with an opponent in the middle of the street in enemy territory was a perfectly normal occurance.  
  
              For a moment, Elena was struck dumb.    
  
              "Kill innocents to save more innocents, or forsee their deaths and do nothing to stop it.  Who bears the greater guilt?"  Cloud shrugged, his eyes heavy with sorrow.  Reno blinked and stared harder.  An odd glint lay hidden in the depths of Cloud's eyes as he stared back, as if a decision had been made and it ammused him.  Reno tensed; in preparation for what, he wasn't sure.    
  
"There are rarely decisions in life that can be separated into good and evil.  More often the scales seem balanced, and only a single grain of sand separates them.  Don't you agree, Elena?"  
  
              He wasn't the only one unnerved by Cloud's lazy intensity, Reno was glad to note.  Even the other members of Avalanch looked uncomfortable.  Perhaps he could use . . .  The fingers in his throat tightened slightly in warning.  Well, maybe not.  
  
             Elena opened her mouth slightly as if to ask Cloud where the hell he thought he was going with this, and then changed her mind.  They wanted a delay, after all.  
  
              Cloud shrugged again.  "Perhaps there was a better path I didn't see.  Looking back, there are millions of threads leading to futures we will never see.  I carry that guilt, and I admit to it.  As for the mystical mumbo jumbo. .  ," he paused, thoughtful.  "I can see why that would bother you.  Blind belief is one of the most terrifying sins, for there is no real way to know when one is committing it.  No one has the time to look into every issue in detail before acting, there is simply too mach information to absorb, and it is very rare that enough data is availiable to form concrete proof that one action is better than another.  We all make the majority of decisions in our life based on hiddiously incompleate data.  All we can do is try."  
  
              "What are you talking about.  It was a hell of a lot more than a guess!" Barrett protested.    
  
              Tiffa nodded emphatically.  "There was something wrong with the planet, and people were dying.  The frequency of deaths tied into the amount of mako being consumed, and started shortly after the reactors were built.  Maybe we didn't have hard and fast proof, but Shinra wasn't doing anything, and SOMEthing needed to be done."  
  
              "I do not believe Cloud is refering to Avalanch's actions."  Vincent's low, rumble cut through the conversation.  "To Guard- that was the Turk's original motto, whether it remains so today or not.  It is only what is guarded, and how the guarding is accomplished that has changed over the centuries."  There was wry amusement in Vincent's tone.  "Answer Cloud, Reno.  Why did you join the Turks?"  
  
              Reno tried to make his expression wistfull and pentinent.  He tried really really hard.  But damn he was a bad actor when he was drunk. . .  
  
              "Fuck, are we really going to stand here and listen to this shit.  Just kill them and let's get going, Cloud,"  Cid snarled.  
  
              "We need to know where Reeve is, and talking to them is much faster than looking through the whole complex on our own," Cloud said calmly.  He wasn't sure where the confidance that he could talk the Turks over came from. . . He raked his gaze over them again.  There was just something angry and. . . pitiful about them now. . .  
  
              "How many times have you been drunk this week, Reno?"  
  
              "Better to ask how many times I've been sober, if that answers your question."  
  
              "Not easy being the bad guy when the good guys are in control, is it?"  
  
              Reno smirked.  "Don't know if you noticed, goldenrod, but the balance of power shifted back over to our side a few days ago.  Did you enjoy your brief moment of fame?"    
  
              "Then why are you still drunk?"  
  
              "I like being drunk.  Listen, if you're trying to convince me that being a member of your happy little band leads to happily ever after, just give up.  I've seen too many of your type, OK?  Even if help for our side shows up, goldenclaw here is probably gonna yank my throat out before I can get free, so I'll do whatever the fuck you want."  
  
              "Reno!" Elena gasped.    
  
              "They got us by the balls, babe.  And I really don't give a damn how this turns out.  You wanna know where your pal is?  Try the flight deck.  He's been hanging there awaiting execution for the last three days.  Careful though- he's rigged with explosives and surrounded by guards.  First sign of a rescue from you guys and kaboom."  
  
              "Those bastards. . ." Barret hissed.   
  
The last traces of amusement faded from Cloud's eyes.  "Then I guess there had better not be a rescue from us.  I'll make a deal with you," Cloud continued.  "I will give myself up to you . . ."  
  
"Like hell you will," Tifa snapped.  
  
His eyes flicked to her.  
  
"I'll give myself up to you, and in exchange, you get Reeve  out.  You can come up with something, I'm sure.  Ask for him as a playtoy to get revenge for something or another or such.  Who would you rather have as a prisioner after all, him or me?"  
  
"And what's to keep me from just keeping both of you?"  
  
"I'll trust your word."   
  
 "NO WAY. . ." Barret started, just as Tifa and Cid started their own tirades.   
  
Cloud held up a hand, and turned to his friends.  "Do you trust me?"  
  
"Of course, when you're not being an idiot," Barret snapped.  
  
Cid snorted.  "That pretty much sums it up."  
  
Cloud shook his head.  "It'll be ok, I promise.  I won't die here, remember?"  
  
"If you want to risk your life over some half assed theory that you're imm. . ."  
  
              "Shut up,Cid."  Cloud interupted him.  "That doesn't need to be common knowledge."  
  
"Sorry, I just have this little objection to my friends committing suicide in front of me,"  the gray haired man snapped.  
  
"If we even get close to Reeve, he'll be dead."  
  
"Yeah, and having the both of you dead is better somehow?"  
  
Cloud turned to the Turks.  "Is it a deal?"  
  
"Cloud!  Damn you, listen to us."  Tifa's hand was white where she had it fisted by her side, as if only force of will was keeping her from flinging it against Cloud's face.  
  
Reno smiled slowly.  "Yes."  
  
"Tell Reeve to meet the rest of Avalanche where I got proposed to; he'll understand."  
  
Cloud touched Tifa's fist.  "I have a hunch on this.  Let me try, please.  I'll come back to you, I promise."  
  
"Damn you. . ."  she hissed.  
  
"Get out of here as soon as you can,"  Vincent said.  "I'll give you a head start and then follow in a few minutes."  
  
"You don't think this is a stupid plan?"  Tifa asked, shocked.  
  
"I. . . have the same hunch Cloud does."  Amusement flickered in the red eyes for a moment, and then he raised his face enough so the fanged smile was visible over the collar of his cloak.  "And I trust Cloud."   
  
   
  
   
  
              The door to the commander's office flew open and crashed against the wall with the help of a good kick.  
  
              "Yo, commander my man.  Got ya a present. . ."  Reno singsonged as he sauntered in, hands in his pockets and showing not the slightest bit of discomfort at the weapons that had been pointed at him since he kicked in the door.    
  
              The balding man waved a hand tiredly at his personal guards, who hastilly pointed the guns someplace other than the firery tempered killer.  Reno stepped aside with a florish, revealing the three standing behind him.  
  
              Cloud's hands were bound behind his back, Elena's gun was a few inches from the small of his neck, and Rude hovered over them both ready to deal death or pain should any of the other restraints fail.  
  
              "Only one?" The commander asked, narrowing his eyes.  "The others must be hiding somewhere on the base.  Send out. . ."  
  
              "They'll be here by tomorrow evening," Cloud interrupted, gasping a bit as talking earned him a knee in the small of his back.  "They can't keep up with the speed the SOLDIER enhancements let me travel at.  We took too long talking before we gave upfor them to arrive in time.  But they'll be here.  They sent me ahead so you know that they're coming and don't kill President Reeve."  
  
              The commander glanced at Reno.  "Lock him up somewhere," he ordered.  "Full security."  
  
              Reno waved a hand lazily and Rude grabbed Cloud's shoulder and yanked him out of the room, Elena following carefully.  The door slid shut behind them.    
  
              "Why are you still here?"  The commander asked the redhead sharply, trying to  keep his nervousness from showing.  He had four guards in the room with him, but was only too aware that the predator in front of him wasn't bothered by them in the slightest.  
  
              The redhead grinned, and hopped up to sit on the edge of the desk.  "I was sort of thinking that Avalanche deserved some punishment for being late. . ."  
  
   
  
              Cloud had only been sitting calmly in the small cell for about an hour when Elena and Rude showed up again, ordering him out of the cell and up a steep flight of stairs.  
  
              He frowned.  "What's going on?"  
  
              The butt  of Elena's gun caught him across the cheek.  "You'll find out when we get there."  
  
              *Not helping me escape, in any case,* Cloud thought wryly, tasting blood along the inside of his cheek.  
  
              There was blue sky visible through the open door at the top of the stairs, and then they were through it and Cloud was staring out at what had to be half the complement of the base assembled to watch something on the pile of boxes that formed an almost stage at the front.  With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomache he recognized Reeve as the kneeling man atop it.  There was a brief jerk at his wrists, pulling his backwards and off balance, and before he recovered there was a soft click and his manicles had been secured to a ring in the wall next to the stairs.   Rude and Elena stepped back, covering him with their weapons.  
  
              "What's going on?"  Cloud asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.   
  
              "Just watch."  
  
              "If you execute him there's no reason for the other members of Avalanche to come."  
  
              "There's allways you, sweet cheeks,"  Elena grinned with cold eyes.  "But don't worry, he's not going to die yet."  
  
              "They wouldn't come for me.  I  . . ."  
  
              A gargled yell cut him off.  Reno had jumped up on the stage and kicked Reeve in the stomach with a steel toed boot.  Reeve wheezed as he fought to get air in his lungs.  
  
              "Stop it,"  Cloud yelled, unconsciously yanking against his bonds.  Damn it, there were too many people here to try to convince Reno to sneek away with Reeve, but maybe. . .  
  
              "Why're you complaining, pretty boy?  I'm just taking your advice.  You told me to ask to play with him for revenge on all the trouble you folks caused us,"   and Reno's foot lashed out again.  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES:  I think this chapter is long enough to need a break, don't you?    And a nice cliff hanger to go along with it. . .  Purrr.    
  
This scene was not in my outline, by the way, although I like it much better than my previous plan.  I love it when the characters supprise me.  It makes writing so much more fun. . .   
  
Inarae  
  
ginabrae@aol.com  
  
  


	11. CH 10

CHAPTER 10 Disclaimer: Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.   
  
I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!  
  
C&C makes me happy! Thanks for reading.  
  
********************************  
  
CHAPTER 10   
  
Reno kicked at Reeve again, catching him on one of the arms crossed behind his back.   
  
Reeve swayed and almost fell over. His eyes had been searching the crowd ever since Cloud had yelled, and finally landed on the chained figure in the back.   
  
"Cloud. . ." His eyes widened in horror. Gods, he had been sure no one from Avalanche would be stupid enough to. . . Another kick interrupted his train of thought. Through the ringing in his ears he could hear Cloud yell again, and the nasal snickering of the red haired devil standing above him. He ignored what Reno had been saying about Cloud's advice; if there was even a grain of truth to it, it was undoubtedly a small grain.  
  
Cloud yanked frustratedly at his bonds again, and then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, all too aware of Reno watching amused from the stage.   
  
"Let Reeve go, Reno." Cloud's voice was calmer but pitched to carry over the entire crowd. "Let Reeve go, or this whole base is going to be a pile of scrap in a few days."  
  
Two or three years ago, if someone had made a statement like that, there wasn't a soldier in Junon who wouldn't have laughed his or her head off before teaching the speaker a lesson about mouthing off. These days though, the listening soldiers just shifted uncomfortably.   
  
Excluding Reno. He did laugh, and managed to sneer while doing it.  
  
"Oooh, I'm scared. How're ya gonna manage that, blondie? Got a WEAPON up your sleeve?"   
  
By common consent, Shinra employees did not make jokes about the planet's WEAPONS; too many of their associates had died as a result of them. Reno, naturally, ignored the said convention.   
  
Cloud shook his head, speaking equally to Reno and the crowd now. "Something better. Sephiroth will come looking for me soon."  
  
Reno froze.   
  
"You killed him."  
  
"Ask Falstor about that. There's a chunk of his base missing already from when Sephiroth came through there a week and a half ago."  
  
"That's impossible!" Reno hissed, but made no move to shut Cloud up or continue with Reeve. "Sephiroth is dead."  
  
"And even if he wasn't, he'd hardly be helping you," Elena snorted, forcing herself to relax despite the knot that had formed in her stomach. Not much scared Turks, as Reno's using the WEAPONS for humor showed. Sephiroth though. . . Sephiroth had killed the best of them, and made it obvious that not only had it been easy, it had been amusing. And there wasn't a Turk who believed that Avalanche could possibly have been strong enough to defeat him. The common consensus was that his mutations had eventually killed him, and Cloud just took the credit. It wasn't much of a stretch to believe that he hadn't died at all. . . Elena forced her mind away from that train of thought.  
  
Cloud was watching her carefully. "You're right. He wouldn't come to help me. He'd come to hunt me, to take my mind and make me his slave, as Shinra intended me to be. He'd destroy everything in his path. And whatever's left," Cloud shrugged, "I'd probably destroy fighting him."   
  
"Big words from a guy in handcuffs." Reno had lost control of his little scene, and was pissed about it. He was even more pissed about the tightness in his chest that he was damn certain wasn't fear.  
  
Cloud stared back at him for a moment. Then he braced himself, reaching inside to open the door to knowledge that wasn't his, knowledge that had flooded his mind as he fell with the knowledge of his coming death. Knowledge of Jenova.  
  
He wasn't sure if it was snippets of Sephiroth's memory, accompanying his plea for life, or if it came from the Jenova in his blood, freed when the Mako that had suppressed it was used up. He was rather sure that it probably wasn't a good idea to use it, but couldn't think of any other options at the moment, and wasn't willing to let Reeve suffer while he thought about it.  
  
He brought his hands in front of him, the metal that had imprisoned him flowing liquid down his arms to drip from his fingertips. His eyes were glowing purple.   
  
"Falstor knew," Cloud continued, deciding not to insult the Turks further by replying verbally to Reno's statement. He slowly ran his hands over each other, wiping off the remaining metal. "He knew Sephiroth lives, that he is hunting me, and he didn't tell you. And that's not the only thing he has stayed silent on. How many of you have family in Midgar? Friends, lovers? Their deaths are the price Falstor is willing to pay to gain control; will you still follow him? He has a weapon that can destroy the city in one blow, he is willing to use the threat of millions of innocent deaths to win. Is that who you want to serve?"  
  
"Don't think that he wouldn't really use it either," Reeve added, wincing through a split lip. "At least some of you must have had family in Sector 8. I know I'm an idiot bastard who doesn't know shit about the military or about running a government, but I can't believe I'm worse than that."  
  
There was something about the image of the Shinra president, tied up and on his knees, blood dripping down his face. Something in the ironic half smile, the brown eyes that watched the crowd or Reno steadily as he awaited his fate with dark humor. It wasn't charisma, not in the sense of the type of personality that asserts its existence; rather the opposite in fact. The knowledge of his own insignificance formed the dark humor in his eyes, and yet passion and strength flowed from him, visible in his calm intensity. It was an arresting combination, and the listeners unconsciously paid attention.  
  
Cloud spoke. "There are three groups fighting right now: us, Falstor, and Sephiroth. You can choose to join us or Falstor, and just pray that Sephiroth doesn't win, because joining him isn't an option."  
  
"What the fuck, you trying to get the entire complement of Junon to defect?" Reno snickered, ignoring the steadily growing unease in the crowd.  
  
Cloud didn't answer, but just met his gaze evenly.  
  
Rude grunted, his gun never having wavered from Cloud during the whole performance. "Proof."  
  
Elena blinked. "That's right. Nice speech, boyo, but unless you can prove that any of that's true, it's not gonna do you any good."  
  
"Nice trick with the handcuffs though," Reno added. He nodded. "Do him, Elena."   
  
Before the first syllable was fully out, Elena's gun had fired, Rude's a millisecond behind her. Cloud threw himself backwards, feeling pain tear through his shoulder, and then across his hip. He yanked the door to the staircase open and hit the ground rolling, angling to use it as a shield. The original plan was to dive down the stairs, but that would mean leaving Reeve, not that there was much he could do for him at the moment. . . A sharp yell proved that Reno was taking out his frustration on the only remaining prisoner. Cloud rolled to his feet and used a pile of boxes near the door to jump to the roof of the stairwell, rolling across it as bullet shots tore small bits of gravel and tar our of the shingling to spray against him. His arm suddenly started to throb as the initial shock wore off, informing him that in no way was he rolling on it again. It didn't matter, he was almost to the far edge; he gathered his legs under him and leapt out, keeping as low as possible. The edge of the roof scraped along his thighs, and then he was belly sliding down another pile of boxes to the ground, his ribs protesting with each corner they impacted with. He lay in an ungainly pile for a second before gritting his teeth and pushing himself to his feet. There was a pile of old ship parts awaiting to be scrapped across the way, ranging from huge two story pieces of hull to motorbike sized engines and everything in between. He could lose his pursuers for at least a few minutes in there, especially if they all just rushed in without a plan, and had to be careful of friendly fire. Hopefully Reno wouldn't want to kill Reeve without an audience. . .   
  
Up over an old pipe, behind the huge blades of a broken propeller, and in the shadow of a pile of airlocks, Cloud paused. He yanked his shirt over his head one handed, carefully pulling it down the other arm despite his hurry. It was hard to tie a bandage one handed, but he'd done it before. He held one end between his teeth and yanked as hard as he could on the other, not caring that he was effectively cutting off most of his circulation. It would stop the blood flow, keeping him from leaving a trail, and that was all that mattered. He had been wearing a thin undershirt as well, which folded up inside his pants was enough to keep the blood from his hip wound from leaking through. The bullet had just creased him there, unlike in the arm. He wondered who had been the bad shot, Elena or Rude? It didn't matter, he had to get going. He had to find a good place to hide, someway to earn back the time he had wasted tying the bandages. . .  
  
  
  
He slithered through the old duct slowly, unwilling to risk even the slightest sound that might give his location away to the searchers he could hear all around him. Reno had sent the soldiers in the audience after him as well, from the sounds of it, and like Cloud had hoped, they were causing more trouble for each other than he could. Every now and then he could hear a spurt of rapid fire, sometimes answered, sometimes not, often followed by a spate of curse filled yelling. The pipe bent ninety degrees ahead. He poked his head around the corner slowly, and felt like cursing himself as the bright light of day stung his eyes. Staying still accomplished nothing; even if they failed to find him immediately, it would be merely a matter of time, and it certainly did nothing to help Reeve. He had to keep moving, hoping to find something, an old bomb he could set off for a distraction, a plane to escape in, maybe a soldier he could ambush and steal a uniform from. . . that was a good idea, actually. If only the junk heap wasn't so full of shadows that the glow from his eyes was so obvious. . . well, he could keep them slitted. But first to find someone he could ambush in an area hidden enough he could strip them and change without someone else stumbling in. A hidden area, no, a inaccessible area. . . Cloud frowned thoughtfully and wondered if he could pull the trick with melting metal on something slightly larger. If he could do it without touching it would be perfect, actually. . . eventually someone else would stumble into the duct. If he could somehow close it behind them. . . or even close it now, from both ends, so it would look like no one could have entered. . . No, that didn't help Reeve at all. It would have to be the uniform.   
  
He had paused in his careful movements to think, and the heavy smell of rust clogged his throat, making the pipe seem tighter and darker. This would not be a good time to develop claustrophobia. . . He pushed the thought aside, and begin slithering towards the opening ahead. He'd have to listen very closely, and choose his time to exit when no one was around. . . There was a heavy thud above him, as if some one had jumped on top of the duct, and then a low groan as the old metal shifted to absorb the new weight. It groaned again, and creaked. The floor Cloud was laying on slowly tilted up on one side.   
  
"Harrison, you idiot, get off of there, it's gonna fall," someone snapped.  
  
`Yes, get off, don't make this crash, please don't make this crash down,` Cloud silently urged the man above him.  
  
"Nah, it's perfectly safe, look at the way it's balanced. And I got a great view of the area. You're just a worrywart. See?" And the metal boomed showed as he jumped up and down. Cloud gritted his teeth and braced himself as best he could.  
  
The great mass of metal shrieked in warning before falling off the edge of whatever it had been resting on. Cloud's only consolation was that it undoubtedly brought the idiot on top along with it.  
  
  
  
Cloud couldn't stifle a moan as he opened his eyes again. He froze, holding his breath, but after a few moments let it out slowly. It didn't seem like anyone had heard. Fine, he still had to get going, get out of here before the still shaky pile of scrap shifted some more. . . Oh, damn, moving hurt. He was betting he had at least a few broken ribs to go along with the bullet wound now. What he wouldn't give for some healing materia. . .  
  
"Harrison, Harrison, are you OK?" The voice from before was approaching.  
  
"What happened?" A new voice.  
  
"The bloody idiot was jumping around up there and set it off. I told him to be careful!"  
  
"No sign of the criminal?"  
  
"Nah, just that idiot."  
  
"Fine, Baker, Croller, you go help dig him out. Manors, keep watch in case Avalanche comes through here. I'll go get the medics."  
  
A scuffled noise. "What happened?" Another voice asked.  
  
"Just some idiots. . . What are you all doing over here? Damn it, go back to searching, he's not here. And hurry, he could be using your distraction to escape!"  
  
Cloud almost groaned. If he had been anywhere else, this would have been the perfect opportunity. . . He settled back into a semi comfortable position. With so many people focused on this area, the only thing he could do was wait and pray they didn't find him while getting the idiot out.  
  
Screech. Stressed curses followed the crash of metal as another piece of the pile broke off and tumbled down.  
  
Cloud closed his eyes. `And pray the duct doesn't fall any further,` he added, shifting so his weight lay against the wall and not his ribs.   
  
"What the fucking. . . Goddamn fucking shithole Bloody Shinra half assed plans. . ."  
  
Cloud's eyes shot open at the sudden string of explicative, and saw. . . nothing. The duct, which had been lit by the opening at the far end and trickles of light through rust holes, was now enveloped in darkness, only the glow from his own eyes allowing him to see the it's outlines. His first thought was that more garbage had fallen atop them, burying the duct where the light couldn't touch, and he wondered when he had fallen so deeply unconscious that he hadn't noticed. Perhaps Sephiroth?  
  
"Bloody freaking equipment. How the hell are we supposed to get out of this death trap in the dark?" The tirade from just outside hadn't let up. There was a screech of metal. "Don't move you goddamn idiot! Wait for the lights. . ."  
  
He hadn't been unconscious then. The lights had gone off. He wriggled slowly to the edge of the pipe and peered out, careful not to make noise, although it probably didn't matter with the way the man outside was yelling. Pure, unbroken black. Not just the lights. All the electricity on the base was out- the sound of the massive fans that aerated the hangar had ceased, and the small lights on the elevator control panel, which he should be able to see from his location, were out, and he knew those ran on a separate circuit from the main lights. Even the emergency generators had quit, apparently, for no small red lights began to glow and break the darkness.   
  
Cloud's chest tightened with worry. If Reno thought he had planned this, that this was part of an attack by Avalanche. . . He tossed caution to the wind and rolled out of the duct, ignoring the noise he made as he began jumping and sliding down the pile, trusting that the darkness would protect him from the guns of the soldiers as they fired at the racket. The glow from his eyes was more than enough to allow his enhanced eyesight to navigate the junk pile, and in seconds he was clear, hands shooting out like projectiles against the bodies of the soldiers guarding the stairwell he had descended just a few minutes earlier. They collapsed with barely an outcry, startled into silence by the sudden eerie attack from the darkness.   
  
The hangar was still in chaos. Cloud hung near the wall, eyes slitted to keep from being noticed, and slid silently towards the front, trying to see the stage. Finally he got a clear view. . . there was no one standing on it, but. . .  
  
He moved closer.  
  
There was a lump alone near the middle of the stage, where Reeve had been, the right size and shape for a human corpse.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Inarae here again, in June of 2003, over three years since I started this and almost a year since I worked on it last. I found chapters nine and ten a few months ago, never posted, and decided to repost the entire story-I took it down after Sept. 11th- writing a story about terrorism and nuclear weapons lost all appeal to me for a long time. Looking at this story now, I still like it, but frankly it's embarrassing. The plot is strong, but unfortunately or fortunately, my writing has improved and I have to keep from wincing as I reread it. In trying to get all the characters where they need to be doing what they need to be doing for the plot to move along, I ignored a lot of description. . . this story should be three times as long as it is, I think, if it were written properly. I would greatly like to rewrite this and fix that, along with the tacky characterizations and stereotypical situations, but I think I'll try to just finish it first. It's hard to get started though. . . I doubt that I'd keep reading it through the tackiness. So I guess I'm asking if anyone reads it all the way through to here, and if this is worth continuing or if I should just start all over with the rewrite because no one will read it otherwise.   
  
There's a couple rather large reasons why I don't just give up on this story like I do so many others. One is simply that I'd like to finish another novella. There is absolutely nothing like the feeling of finishing a couple hundred pages and liking what you've done, and it would give a huge kick to my self esteem, especially since I mainly only read fanfic novels and novellas, so I'm not a big fan of my own shorts, even though I know they're better written than the novellas. The other reason is a bit more complicated. I started playing FFVII after reading Madam Hydra's wonderful, stunning fic Conflicts of Interest at www.madamhydra.net. I later found Twig's spectacular story a href=" http://www.black-waltz.net/noiresensus/bookshelf/ff7/" A Long, Hard Road /a. I loved and love those two stories, and I wanted more. There are a lot of other good FFVII stories around, but what I wanted to read was action and plot heavy post game Sephiroth, and that's almost impossible to find- mainly because it goes against cannon, I know. So I decided I'd better write it myself. The lack of originality in this fic is frankly another embarrassment to me- I know it draws heavily on both the stories above, although I didn't consciously realize that in the beginning.? I don't think it's similar enough anyone would get upset about it, for the most part the only similarity is that Seph gets reincarnated and that he and Cloud share a connection beyond that implied in the game, but . . . (wince) Still, it's what I wanted to read, what I still want to read, and three years later, searching the net, I still can't find much more of this type of fic, so I guess I'd better finish this for my own peace of mind. Maybe I can work the kinks in it out later.   
  
Like always, C&C appreciated, and I am planning on working more on this soon. Thanks for reading,  
  
Inarae  
  
ginabrae@aol.com 


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